A Rational Cosmology: The Natures and Tasks of Ontology and Cosmology

The branch of philosophy that deals with existence at its most fundamental level is termed metaphysics. The branch of metaphysics that concerns the nature of what exists is termed ontology.

Ontology makes the distinction between entities, the things that exist, and qualities, the attributes that these things have. The philosopher Reginald Firehammer states three fundamental ontological corollaries to the axiom of identity in his essay, "Perception." The ontological corollaries answer the question: "What is an entity?"

The first corollary of identity: Anything that exists must have some qualities.

The second corollary of identity: Anything that exists must be different in some way from everything else that exists and have some quality or combination of qualities no other existent has.

The third corollary of identity: Anything that exists must have some relationship to everything else that exists.

A quality, on the other hand, is not a thing or an entity in its own right. Rather, it cannot conceivably exist except as an attribute of the entities that exhibit it. For example, there is no such thing as "the color red." The color red cannot be imagined to exist outside of those things which are red: red paint, red letters, red furniture, red vegetables, etc. There cannot be a "pure quality" apart from the entities that possess it.

Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that focuses on what entities and qualities are, how to distinguish between them, and how to categorize relationships between entities, as well as the various states under which various entities and their relationships may be classified. Ontology is an extremely young science, as Ayn Rand did not live long enough to initiate its development. Within this work, it will be my task to develop ontology to a level necessitated by the discussion of a branch of metaphysics which is derivative from ontology, namely, cosmology.

While ontology concerns itself with the general nature of entities, qualities, and relationships, cosmology ventures even further, by making certain fundamental empirical assertions about existence. Ontology deals with the conceptual underpinnings of all existence, whereas cosmology deals with the observational underpinnings thereof.

For many years, cosmology has been misclassified as a "natural science" or, worse, a branch of physics, rendering it fashionable for such scientists as Stephen Hawking to offer speculations about space, time, and the universe which are in fact the province of philosophy, not physics, to explicate. Now, however, an alternative view, based on reason, common sense, and the observations humans make every moment of the world around them, can supplant the false cosmology of contemporary physicists.

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