Stephan Korner on immanent metaphysics: Are we not all “Brother Metaphysicians”?

Abstract

The alarming (sometimes horrific) attitude usually displayed by majority of people (even a times among academics) each time one takes a metaphysical approach or tilt towards issues that are of public concern, no matter how felicitously it is expressed, can indeed be, most times, frustrating. Metaphysics and metaphysical issues are treated as though they are for a select class of transcendental humans. Against the backdrop of Stephan Korner‟s understanding of immanent metaphysics as the “principles to which every proposition about the public world must conform if it is to be acceptable”,. This paper argues that by virtue of such conception of immanent metaphysics, one cannot possibly exclude oneself from being a metaphysician and that anyone who attempts to do so automatically excludes oneself from rational humanity. For if principles, beliefs, attitudes, practical attitudes, etc. are part of the definition of immanent metaphysics, it means that it is an indispensable part of our daily lives. Employing the exhibition-analysis method, with a hermeneutic tilt, the essay, in the true style of metaphysically generalis and without any specificity in application, observes that an immanent metaphysical attitude can be expressed in all facets of reality. The paper sees practical attitude as the ability of having our beliefs perceived as realizable (or unrealizable) An then concludes, by discussing the challenge posed by the subjective nature of our immanent metaphysics and argues that this can be overcome by applying the inter-subjectivity-concept.