1. What is philosophy? It is the love of wisdom.
Wisdom is knowing how to solve problems. The study of how best to solve personal problems is called ethics. Before one can solve problems, one must understand them. In the seen world we study physics to understand. In the unseen world we study metaphysics to understand. Before we can do physics or metaphysics, we must know how to know, which is epistemology. The foundation of philosophy is epistemology. On that we build physics and metaphysics. On physics and metaphysics we build ethics. The best and the worst philosophies come from “vertical” epistemologies; the worldly ones from “horizontal” epistemology.
Styles of philosophizing all start from common sense: (a) Esoteric construction; (b) Withering deconstruction; (c) Reorganization of common sense.
Religion is a person’s pattern of life. A church is an institution which promotes a religion. Philosophy is answers to basic questions. Everyone has a religion and a philosophy, though few are conscious of what they are.
2. What is metaphysics? Metaphysics is the study of the unseen universe. In science, it is called theory; in religion it is called theology; about the past it is called history; about the future it is called prophecy. Most of the really important questions humans have involve metaphysics: Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Is there a God? Do right and wrong exist? Is there purpose in life?
The problem in metaphysics is to get a suitable epistemology with which to answer the questions. Most metaphysics is the result of fabrication. Latter-day Saint metaphysics is based on personal revelation.
3. To speak metaphysics is to try to paint word pictures. No words or pictures can capture reality. We come closest to reality when we are face to face with it, working with it daily. The following ideas are personal metaphysics in an LDS frame.
4. The most important metaphysical idea is that of God. There are two senses in which Latter-day Saints use the word “God”: (a) A god is a person who is exalted. There are many such gods; (b) God is all gods in their priesthood organized missions (male and female). There is but one God. The absolute and perfect obedience of each god to both rightness and to superior authority creates the oneness of God.
- God is omnipotent (but cannot do things which cannot be done).
- God is perfectly righteous (no repentance is ever needed).
- God is omniscient (knows past, present, and future).
- God is love, and does nothing except to bless. (All “cursings” are really blessings).
- God is in total control. (There are no accidents. The universe is governed by law).
- God does not change (is eternal).
Evil exists in the world because God gives each person agency. No person could be exalted without the opportunity to do evil. Every human does evil, but some repent and can be exalted. Men know God only by communicating with Him (as opposed to merely knowing about Him).
5. Human beings are literal children of the gods, and are agents, because they (a) are intelligent; (b) know good and evil; and (c) have power to act.
God’s foreknowledge does not abrogate man’s agency in any way. The Gospel of Jesus Christ invites all human beings to let Jesus Christ teach them how to repent, to become righteous, and to become gods.
Humans have four aspects: heart, mind, strength, and might. Heart and mind are of the spirit; strength is of the physical body; might is the effect we have on other things around us. Every human has a unique heart, might, mind and strength.
Salvation is to receive a new heart, might, mind, and strength through Christ. (We are saved from ourselves to become new creatures in Christ). We are not fully converted to Christ until we are new creatures in those four aspects.
6. The universe includes God, and has always existed. Creation means reorganizing. Space is the possibility of existence. Time is the possibility of change. God does not change, and hence is eternal.
When men imagine the universe, they must invent it in broad categories. God knows and deals with the universe as particulars. Animals and plants and the dust of the earth are also creatures of God.
The earth is the globe on which we reside. The world is the kingdom of Satan on the earth. We know little about the creation of the earth except that it was done by God, but we have a blow by blow account of the creation of the world.
7. Most philosophers have been idealists, and are so today. This means that they believe that reality is ultimately ideas, and ideas are represented by words. The mark of an idealist is that he will give you words about something to establish what it really is. Modern science is a good example of an idealist system.
LDS metaphysics, on the other hand, is materialist. Reality cannot be captured in words or ideas; rather, it must be cooperated with. Thus, deeds are much more important than words in an LDS frame. Our Father in Heaven, our Savior and the Holy Ghost are real to us only as we live with, communicate with and serve them and their children daily. The great communications with God are feelings, not words.
8. Causation to most people is simple and linear. To Latter-day Saints causation is systemic and total. God is the greatest force in the system, but man and Satan and every particle that has intelligence affect the system. Humans often think that they have everything under control; that is a Satanic illusion. If one wants to affect things, the best way is to learn God’s will, then to work to implement His will.