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to Vietnamese Missionaries in Taiwan Home PageLike Descartes' Meditationes de prima philosophia, Harold Holz constructs his Metaphysische Untersuchungen in five meditations. The first meditation on the history of some metaphysical theorems consists of eleven small meditations on the object of metaphysics, the traditional position, the 'theologia naturalis', the conflict between metaphysica and anti-metaphysics, language, theodicee, ablosute Being and human freedom, methods, model theoretical considerations and structure. In the second meitation, Holz discusses on the prolematics and program of a mutual completion of mathematics and metaphysics. this meditation consists of fourteen parts dealing mainly with metaphysics, analytics, logic and mathematics. the third meditation on the perspective of a universal fundamental knowledge which consists of 10 chapters. Here he deals particulary with the problem of causality, the main point of metaphysics. In the fourth meditation, he returns to the more fundamental question, namely the position of human beings in cosm, and as cosm. Here he meticulously seeks to bring man, sciences and metaphysics into a common ground. The last meditation deals with the horizon of the Absolute which Holz considers as the completion of human beings.
Holz' Metaphysische Untersuchungen is without doubt a monumental work which must be taken into consideration. In the last decade, we have had less works on metaphysics. With the exception on Emerich Coreth's Metaphysics, only a few of pieces of metaphysical literature caught our notice. Holz' book belongs to these few. It is recommended to all who wish to have a good knowledge of the relationship between metaphysics, mathematical method and ontology.
John B. Tran Van Doan, Professor of National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Last Updated February 20,1997 by Steven Proulx
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