Does Metaphysics Pervade All Political Theories and is It a Necessary Part of Political Life

Intuitively I agreed with Adams when I was reading his paper his contention that “Metaphysical assumptions frame our everyday thinking.” (The inevitability of political metaphysics Page 269 and “The world of fact is defined in terms of the world of value.” (‘The Inevitability Of Political metaphysics.’ Ian Adams Page 270) was compelling but are our values intrinsically metaphysical? Has Adams ignored the possibility that values could be something that we have created ourselves because we have faculties such as reason emotions imagination and a shared human history and that all our moral notions come from our experiences and empirical observation; and if we look at humanity from an historical and psychological aspect will we recognise the growth of our moral sensibilities through the consequences of our actions?

The question that I am trying to work out in my mind is whether metaphysical notions are like those notions of Plato and his form of the good. Is there a moral reality apart from this world (spiritually) and does that mean that moral values are absolute eternal truths? I find a problem with this proposition because I believe that moral values can change from culture to culture or from different time periods in history. If on the other hand they are the grounding principles on which we make our moral judgements then I would have to agree with Ian Adams conclusion that metaphysics are pervasive in political ideology and a necessary part of political life.

Adams asserts that “throughout the history of Western political thought, metaphysics has had a recognised role in providing foundations upon which a great many normative or ideological theories rest” (‘The inevitability of Political Metaphysics’ Adams Ian Page 269). That role could be in a dialogue with other schools of thought such as the sceptic. This could be how the grounding principles of morality are discovered. (Rather than expecting them to be floating about in some other spiritual plane of existence)

To show the importance of the role of metaphysics he first has to discuss metaphysics. Metaphysics is “Factual claims about the nature of reality that cannot in principle be investigated or tested by physical science.” (‘The inevitability of political metaphysics’ Adams, Ian Page 269) Adams believes that metaphysics is not just the study of ‘being’ of the nature of things but also is about how we make sense of the world on a moral basis. “Any theory that makes the morally good and bad, right and wrong, superior and inferior, part of its conception of objective reality in a systematic way is necessarily a metaphysics.” (‘The Inevitability Of Political Metaphysics’ Adams Ian Page 271) Kant considered metaphysics as being twofold the study of nature and the study of morals “We may call all philosophy empirical, so far as it is based on grounds of experience: on the other hand, that which delivers its doctrines from à priori principles alone we may call pure philosophy. When the latter is merely formal it is logic; if it is restricted to definite objects of the understanding it is metaphysics” (Fundamental Principles of The metaphysics of Morals). It is “the human will as it is affected by nature” that Kant is interested in The Metaphysics of Morals.  We have ideas about how we ought to live this is why all moral questions should be investigated a priori because he argued if morals are investigated a posteriori they will be tainted. He puts forward the idea of the categorical imperative (for example don’t kill) that any rational being will always do the moral thing. The categorical imperative is a command and to disobey it would be irrational.  Adams argues that we make value judgements part of external reality and that they become objective truths because “The world of fact is defined in terms of the world of value.” (‘The Inevitability Of Political metaphysics.’ Ian Adams Page 270).