assistant: This may help,

INTRODUCTION:
THE TASK OF THINKING REALITY
NIKOLA) ZUNIC
I. THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
Metaphysics is the science of reality, the study of what things are
and how they operate. It is a longstanding view among philosophers
that metaphysics is an innate tendency of the human spirit, that people
instinctively want to know what reality is. Aristotle famously remarked
at the beginning of his Metaphysics that "all men by nature desire to
know" and about two millennia later Immanuel Kant echoed these
same ideas by stating in his Critique of Pure Reason that metaphysics is
rooted in the teleological movement of reason itself. At first glance the
term "metaphysics" can appear a bit daunting and intimidating,
conveying the connotation of abstract systematizing, but at its heart
the philosophical tradition has always endeavored to tap into and
articulate the deepest aspiration of all human beings, which is to live in
the truth, the very basis of reality.
With such a formidable tradition standing behind such views one
could be forgiven for believing that this desire for truth is a permanent
and indelible fixture of the human soul. Yet, when one looks around
the world today in the early part of the 2151 century, there is much
evidence that living in the truth is not the top priority of most human
beings. The rapid advances in technology, especially on the communication front (e.g. the Internet), and the increased politicization of
society, which more often than not breeds a certain obfuscating and
self-serving rhetoric, have created the ideal conditions for the flight
from truth and the establishment of a pseudo-reality, often termed a
"virtual reality." This is nothing more than a cursory, general
observation of the state of humanity in our contemporary age, but the
dictum that "truth falters in the public square" (59:14), as promulgated
by the prophet Isaiah, is as old as civilization itself and has been
witnessed countless times in history, most famously in the case of
Socrates, but also throughout the philosophical tradition. Although
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INTRODUCTION
human beings desire the truth, we also tend to shun and reject it.
Although human beings want to embrace and live in reality, we also
have an inclination to immure ourselves in falsehoods and even lies.
Although human beings are made for happiness, we are prone to sin
and to spending our days in sadness. It would not be too outrageous to
suggest that human beings are, rightly put, paradoxical creatures.
Despite this contradictory human nature, there is still hope that
truth will set us free. As the Irish poet Seamus Heaney remarked, "The
mind still longs to repose in what Samuel Johnson once called with
superb confidence 'the stability of truth,' even as it recognizes the
destabilizing nature of its own operations and enquiries."1 This
confidence in the power of truth to orient the human mind towards its
final goal in life and to anchor the soul in the nurturing waters of
reality is the backdrop of this present collection of essays, which are
devoted to metaphysical themes that take their cue from the original
searchings of the ancient Greeks, continued through the Middle Ages,
and advanced in contemporary times by figures such as Jacques
Maritain. What is at play here is the perceived need to resurrect
metaphysical thought and to demonstrate that the unquenchable
desire for truth is indeed an aspect of the human condition that cannot
be suffocated out of existence.
Distinctions of Being: Philosophical Approaches to Reality, as the title
itself suggests, bears upon the time-honored insight that philosophical
thinking depends upon the making of distinctions. Robert Sokolowski
has gone one step further to describe the act of distinguishing as a
quintessential philosophical act.2 Such distinctions include what is
essential versus what is accidental, form as opposed to matter, act and
potency, the divine and the human, the temporal and the eternal, and
so on. No doubt such thinking requires a modicum of talent and skill,
for often the realities being distinguished are subtle, abstract, and
utterly simple. Nonetheless, it remains a mainstay of philosophical
thought itself that the subtleties of sameness and difference be
properly recognized and understood. After all, as the cover photo of
1 Seamus Heaney, "Crediting Poetry," in Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998), 418.
2 Robert Sokolowski, "The Method of Philosophy: Making Distinctions," The
Review of Metaphysics 51 (1998): 515-32.
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DISTINCTIONS OF BEING

want to keep reading here is a link:
https://maritain.nd.edu/ama/Distinct/Distinct010.pdf