For modern philosophy, the fundamental concepts (or rational principles) upon which human understanding rests are the so-called Categories of Philosophy. Here, these are 1) the Hermeneutic; 2) the Ontological; and 3) the Cosmological Cateogories, all shown on the right. As we see it, these major areas of concern effectively define Metaphysics, a subject that, since the time of Descartes, has entailed two principle fields of research— Ontology and Cosmology—in its study of the notion of Being in general (Ontology) and of the specific Beings that exist (Cosmology).
In our interpretation, the two lower Categories are just the Ontological and Cosmological Categories: here called Force and Form. Each of these natural Categories is parsed in terms of a Syzygy; and in fact this Syzygy itself is the main Category (see illustration). Consequently, these two subfields of Metaphysics (Ontology and Cosmology) are themselves depicted here as triadic Categories. The main ideas involved in the explication of these triadic Categories are discussed in detail in what follows.