Ontology, as a branch of philosophy, is about trying to understanding the unchanging ground of being.
In that regard, materialism, naturalism and physicalism aren’t really ontologies. All three appeal to tentative types of knowledge. Materialism is pretty much dead, since the scientific concept of matter has become so abstract the term is basically meaningless. Naturalism depends on how someone defines natural and what modern people now consider natural is much different from ages past. Likewise physicalism depends on whatever the current understanding of physics is. Yesterday’s scientific theories are overturned by today’s and tomorrow’s are likely to overthrow today’s.
None of these ‘ontologies’ delve into the fundamental nature of being in any meaningful way. Any ontology worthy of the name would be valid independent of a society’s level of scientific knowledge. The ground of being can only be something that is itself Absolute. So for now, I'll stick with Neo-Platonism.
In that regard, materialism, naturalism and physicalism aren’t really ontologies. All three appeal to tentative types of knowledge. Materialism is pretty much dead, since the scientific concept of matter has become so abstract the term is basically meaningless. Naturalism depends on how someone defines natural and what modern people now consider natural is much different from ages past. Likewise physicalism depends on whatever the current understanding of physics is. Yesterday’s scientific theories are overturned by today’s and tomorrow’s are likely to overthrow today’s.
None of these ‘ontologies’ delve into the fundamental nature of being in any meaningful way. Any ontology worthy of the name would be valid independent of a society’s level of scientific knowledge. The ground of being can only be something that is itself Absolute. So for now, I'll stick with Neo-Platonism.
