150 cosmos
is one thing with various aspects. In this oneness is expressed the
unity of the world. All relations, internal and external, involve a sub-
stantial unity embracing the relata.For over thirty years I have defended the thesis of universal internality as
a metaphysical position of greatest cogency. Metaphysics is the study of reality
and proceeds by locating the irreducible component, or components, of expe-
rience. Relational metaphysics claims that the most economical thing that can
be said about experience is that it consists of relatedness. It further argues that
experience consists of what is fundamental and what is derivative, and that
what is fundamental is relatedness. All the other so-called fundamentals, such
as subjects and objects, mind and brain, are derivatives. These derivatives are
harmless enough in everyday discourse unless they are treated as fundamental.
One might say that the quest in metaphysics is for the answer to Heideg-
ger’s question, “What is a thing?” It is feasible to argue now that the usual
things that were thought of as fundamental are best considered derivatives.
Continuing to treat them as fundamentals unduly complicates metaphysics.
What Whitehead had to say about what we have usually thought of as “enduring
things” I should like to apply to all pseudofundamentals:^29
The simple notion of an enduring substance sustaining persistent
qualities, either essentially or accidentally, expresses a useful abstract
for many purposes of life. But whenever we try to use it as a funda-
mental statement of the nature of things, it proves itself mistaken. It
arose from a mistake and has never succeeded in any of its applica-
tions. But it has had one success: it has entrenched itself in lan-
guage, in Aristotelean logic, and in metaphysics. For its employment
in language and logic there is...asound pragmatic defence. But in
metaphysics the concept is sheer error.Having established reasons for believing that physics and metaphysics
both present relational features, it now remains to be shown how all this per-
tains to religion. My thesis is that relational metaphysics provides a herme-
neutical paradigm which comes closest to respecting the original intentionality
of the religious traditions. Religion has been plagued by reification, whereby
derivatives have been treated as fundamental.
“Saying Different Things”: The Language of Religion
and the Language of Science
The thesis of complementarity holds that religion and science “are saying dif-
ferent things about the same domain.” What is the nature of this “difference”?
First, we shall consider the language of religion.