The Transcendentals and Metaphysical Knowledge

Abstract

In metaphysics the transcendentals are the basic cognitive structures through which we express the knowledge of particulars and of the whole reality as well. This knowledge is possible because of the nature of the transcendentals and their function. In this paper we are going to show that:
1. Understanding of the transcendentals is strictly connected with the conception of knowledge and of existential judgment. The transcendentals have the structure of an existential judgment (as they are „shortenings” or „contractions”).
2. We cannot take off the description of the transcendentals from existential judgment because this leads to misunderstandings of the main function of the transcendentals in the metaphysical knowledge. It is important to stress that the transcendentals give us the essential and universal knowledge of existing particulars.
3. The transcendentals are the „border grasps” of the real necessary condition of the existence of being and for that reason they are the base of the metaphysical knowledge in which we aim to separate „being from not-being”.
4. The transcendentals bring us the metaphysical knowledge which we call, according to its unrestricted generality, the „systemic” knowledge.