Description
Book SynopsisWhat is at stake in that form of inquiry that the western philosophical tradition has called first philosophy or metaphysics? Is it an abstract, now outmoded branch of philosophy, or does it address a problem that is still of great interest namely the unity of western knowledge?
In fact, metaphysics is first only in relation to the other two sciences that Aristotle called theoretical: the study of nature (phusike) and mathematics. It is the strategic sense of this primacy that needs to be examined, because what is at issue here is nothing less than the relationship of domination or subservience, conflict or harmony between philosophy and science. The hypothesis of this book is that philosophy's attempt to use metaphysics as a way of securing primacy among the sciences has resulted instead in its subservience: philosophy, once handmaiden to theology (ancilla theologiae), has now become more or less consciously handmaiden to the sciences (ancilla scientiarum). So it i
