Metaphysics presumes some kind of perfection somewhere, but there is no reason to presume this. Further, it presumes free will in the capacity to strive for the ideal. But Nietzsche writes, "Becoming is robbed of its innocence when any particular condition of things is traced to a will, to intentions and to responsible actions" (p. 31). People exist from fate. There is no ideal happiness or morality. There is nothing outside the whole by which a judgment could be formed or administered. There is no tracing existence to a first cause. In other words, the moral rationale by which metaphysics creates an eternal, immutable world need not be valid.

In sum, this essay has briefly analyzed Plato's theory of forms and Aristotle's prime mover. It has argued that such metaphysical notions are based as much on moral and theological concerns as on logic. Furthermore, they operate acceptably only by subordinating...
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