Abstract

Reality is fundamentally unitary, on the hypothesis under consideration, but the is of this assertion expresses a contingent fact. The necessity expressed in the metaphysical formulation does not refer to reality in itself but rather to the relation between reality and truth. Metaphysical truth is necessary truth in the sense that it relates of necessity to the real. It is necessary with respect to the real; it states what reality is but not what it must be. Thus the question whether reality is one or many is a legitimate metaphysical question and if a true answer can be given it is true necessarily. But it is not necessarily true. For metaphysics does not attempt to establish the ontological necessity of reality. In other words, it may be a necessary truth of metaphysics that reality is both one and many and, yet, an open ontological question whether or not it must be so.