468 AMBROSE J. MCNICHOLL 



cepts are developed. In general, the radical investigations into 

 the foundations of the sciences, so widely pursued today, suffer 

 from the fact that they are more scientific than metaphysical, 

 and their completion, by integration into a metaphysical expo- 

 sition of the genesis of fundamental concepts and principles, in 

 relation both to the concept of being and to the origins of 

 knowledge in sensible experience, would both benefit the sci- 

 ences, and perhaps lead the scientist to appreciate the peculiar 

 and fundamental function of metaphysics. If the power of the 

 intellect to see things as beings is granted, and the radical value 

 of such knowledge admitted, it would not be too difficult to 

 drive home the distinction, on the factual side of scientific 

 knowledge, between the level of sense perception, or phe- 

 nomena, ruled by change, and the level of essential natures 

 and relationships, which provide a stable basis for the inter- 

 pretation of change. 



Metaphysics was the vital link which made possible the great 

 medieval synthesis between philosophy and theology; the mod- 

 em attempt to effect a similar synthesis between philosophy 

 and science by means of mathematics has led to the dissolution 

 of mathematics into a conventional axiomatics, and to the 

 lamentable divorce between philosophy and science. Only the 

 restoration of a metaphysics securely centered on being, and 

 fully aware of its existential implications, can finally heal this 

 unfortunate breach. And for the modern scientist, the way 

 back to such an integrated synthesis may well be through a 

 philosophy of nature which interprets the phenomena of change, 

 with which the special sciences deal, in the light of the prin- 

 ciples it has received from metaphysics. The philosophy of 

 nature is the means by which the insights of the metaphysician 

 can be deepened and extended, by attention to the ever new 

 aspects constantly being revealed by the striking progress of 

 the natural sciences in a universe that more and more takes on 

 the appearance of a cosmos, and by which the certainty and 

 objectivity which metaphysics alone can guarantee may be 

 shared and communicated to the sciences. 



Ambrose J. McNicholl, O. P. 



Angelicum, Rome. 



