A Rational Cosmology: The Distinction Between Physics and Cosmology

Essay IV

This is Essay IV of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

The reason for cosmology's essential grounding in ontology is the fact that, before one can answer questions such as "What entities exist?", "What qualities exist?", and "What relationships exist?", one must first answer the questions: "What is an entity?", "What is a quality?", and "What is a relationship?"

This, of course, implies, that all true and objective science is in fact founded upon a rational ontology, metaphysics, and philosophy. Both philosophy and physics are sciences, but philosophy is a foundational science, and physics is a specific-observational science.

I use the term "specific-observational" as distinguished from "general-observational," which would be the basis for such sciences as philosophy and mathematics. There is no true science which does not have some kind of observation behind it, but this does not have to be observation under the narrow empiricist-positivist definition which equates observation with experimentation.

Physics (along with the other "natural" or specific-observational sciences) seeks to answer the question: "What are particular entities/qualities/relationships?" This therefore renders it dependent on specific, targeted observations of those entities/qualities/relationships.

Cosmology, on the other hand, is not derivative of physics, but rather far more fundamental, as it depends on general, not specific, observations. It asks: "What entities/qualities/relationships exist universally, and are ubiquitously observable?"