Metaphysics and Science
It is commonly said that science provides
certainties (scientific certainty), whereas metaphysics provides no certainty
and varies indefinitely according to subjective opinions. Therefore, in this
second field, we do not find anything objectively true; everything can be true
or false depending on the context in which we find ourselves. In reality, things
are not exactly like this, although this distinction is not without foundation
if properly understood.
Let's first look at what we mean by science and metaphysics.
In our tradition, the term "science" referred to any type of knowledge
considered certain, without making the distinction that today seems fundamental
to us. A common example is that Dante treats both the explanation of sunspots
and the existence of angels—and above all, of sins—as if they were the same type
of knowledge, something we moderns would not do.
Later, starting from the 18th century, a distinction was made between physics
and metaphysics.
Physics, from the Greek "nature," referred to knowledge concerning things that
are objects of sensory experience, i.e., physical objects.
Metaphysics (literally, beyond nature) referred instead to everything beyond
sensible things, so not only religion but also the definition of ethical and
political values, and human behavior, which are not objects of the senses. Good
and evil are not sensible objects, yet their conception moves our lives and our
society, just as religious beliefs do, for example. However, nowadays,
metaphysics is commonly understood to concern religious matters, seen as the
ultimate explanation of the universe.
We can observe that neither physics (let's still call it that) nor metaphysics
achieve ultimate and definitive truths, but the difference is that the former is
falsified (or verified) by experiments, while the latter is not. Thus, a
scientific law is considered valid at a certain stage of experience, but this is
not the case for metaphysics.
Taking Galileo as an example: in his time, it wasn't true at all that
geocentrism was the scientific truth and that heliocentrism was a bias or even a
religious superstition. Both theories could be considered valid according to the
experiences of that time, but later, new and broader experiences validated
heliocentrism and falsified geocentrism. In theory, we could imagine that
further experiences might reconfirm geocentrism, but at this point in history,
everyone agrees with heliocentrism based on what scientists say, which the
common person cannot directly verify.
In metaphysics, however, there are those who believe in God and those who do not,
those who think abortion is a woman's right and those who think it is
infanticide, and everyone has their own opinion: no experiences can falsify
either theory.
There are areas of science where we have only hypotheses (from very few experts)
but have not yet been able to perform decisive experiments to support or refute
them. When this happens (for example, with the Higgs boson), all the very few
experts agree. In metaphysics, however, there are no decisive experiments, and
the arguments are repeated over millennia, with each person deciding for
themselves.
But we cannot say, as is commonly believed, that physics provides certainties
and metaphysics does not, but only that they involve very different ways of
acquiring knowledge. Science is characterized by unanimity of consensus, and
metaphysics by a multiplicity of positions.
We must also bear in mind that, although science has immense importance in our
lives and has indeed profoundly changed our society—and therefore also our
mentality—in this field, only a very small number of scientists are competent,
and everyone else simply adapts.
In the metaphysical field, however, each of us can make a contribution: these
are topics in which everyone can intervene, and the beliefs that form profoundly
influence our behaviors, our lives, and, ultimately, our very being.
In conclusion, neither science nor metaphysics provides ultimate and definitive
certainties. However, the field in which each of us can have an influence and
which most determines our lives is metaphysics, whereas in science, we are left
to accept what the very few experts believe to be true until a future experiment
disproves it. For us, then—common people, not great scientists—the field of
knowledge in which we are active participants is metaphysics, while science is
the field in which we are passive.