Is the universe intelligible to man, or unintelligible and unknowable? Can man
find happiness on earth, or is he doomed to frustration and despair? Does man
have the power of choice, the power to choose his goals and to achieve them,
the power to direct the course of his life—or is he the helpless plaything of
forces beyond his control, which determine his fate? Is man, by nature, to be
valued as good, or to be despised as evil? These are metaphysical questions,
but the answers to them determine the kind of ethics men will accept and
practice; the answers are the link between metaphysics and ethics. And although
metaphysics as such is not a normative science, the answers to this category of
questions assume, in man’s mind, the function of metaphysical value-judgments,
since they form the foundation of all of his moral values.
Consciously or subconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, man knows that he
needs a comprehensive view of existence to integrate his values, to choose his
goals, to plan his future, to maintain the unity and coherence of his life—and
that his metaphysical value-judgments are involved in every moment of his life,
in his every choice, decision and action.