Real Time and Perspectives of Modern Metaphysics

Abstract

One of the features of modern philosophy is the revival of interest in clas­sical metaphysical problems (the nature of the mental, free will, time) and their active discussion. However, the state of affairs in modern metaphysics is rather ambiguous. While some researchers try to solve metaphysical problems within a certain tradition, others seek alternative ways, and others deny the very possibility of metaphysics as a positive knowledge, or at least to focus on discussing the question of its methods and actual possibilities. Strictly speaking, taking into account the difficulties that the thesis about the possibility of obtaining knowledge about objective reality has faced over the past centuries, there is nothing fundamentally new in this state of affairs. There are still two main questions that remain relevant, without an answer to which it is impos­sible to say that the solution to any metaphysical problem is coherent. Is metaphysics even possible as a positive knowledge of reality? If possible, how? The author be­lieves that the arguments from the side of transcendentalism against naturalism are quite effective, and it is necessary to abandon the search for solutions to metaphysi­cal problems that are compatible with naturalism. But this does not mean that meta­physical problems cannot be solved at all. According to the author, the perspectives of metaphysics can be associated with the search for other points of reference than those that are usually used in modern discussions. As such, we can take the idea of the objectivity of time, which is of crucial importance in modern metaphysics.