The problem of the limit of metaphysical speculation ascends to the Critique of Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant. First, metaphysics is characterized by Kant as a natural tendency – metaphysica naturalis – of a person, which manifests itself in the ability to speculate (Moore, 2019). There are other types of rational activity apart from science. Accordingly, the limits of metaphysical speculation are the field of rational-discursive knowledge, which studies objects of the external world, and art, related to the analysis of a person’s inner world and different from science.
There are several modes of metaphysics representing the realm of metaphysical speculation. The first two are ontology, which studies existence, and psychology, cosmology, and natural theology, the subject of research of man, nature, and God. These two modes can be called ontological metaphysics. The third mode of metaphysics is associated with the epistemological upheaval of modern times. Metaphysics acts in such cases as a criticism of the preceding metaphysics. The fourth mode of metaphysics – experimental metaphysics is related to the manifestation of speculative reason in practical scientific activity; it is one of the most elementary acts of perception of three-dimensional objects. Considering the difference, the question of metaphysics’ limits should be researched separately for each of the modes. The case of ontology is based on the fact that Being, as Aristotle showed, is not an abstraction (genus, predicate), and therefore cannot be studied by science (Moore, 2019). Instead, Being acts as a presupposition of the given, and ontology should be built as a theory of presuppositions.
The possibility of epistemological metaphysics uses the fact that we have a priori forms of meta meta-subjective transcendental character. Being between the immanent and intangible, a meeting of the subject in the course of cognition is provided. The inner world of a person, coupled with the study of the essence of being, is studied in aggregate with all aspects of metaphysics, which represents its limits.
Reference
Moore, A. W. (2019). Language, world, and limits: Essays in the philosophy of language and metaphysics. Oxford University Press.