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Metaphysics

University, Philosophy

The study of being, substance, and the fundamental categories of reality. Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Definition, history, and divisions of metaphysics

  • Metaphysics: study of the structure and fundamental principles of reality
  • Key concepts: entity, being, existence, object, property, relation, causality, time, and space
  • Relation to other branches: it is a foundation of philosophy along with logic and epistemology
  • Evolution: it was formerly natural philosophy; today it studies the empirically inaccessible
  • Definition of concepts: only metaphysics defines matter and life
  • Ontology: the study of being as such
  • Theology: the study of separate substances and ultimate causes
  • Current problems: persistence, constitution, mind-body, and causation
  • Strong version of impossibility: the statements lack meaning (Wittgenstein)
  • Weak version of impossibility: the statements are unknowable (Hume, Kant)
  • Human nature: Kant defines it as "inevitable necessity" and Schopenhauer as a "metaphysical animal"

Origin, definitions, and foundations of metaphysics

  • Etymology: μετὰ φύσις ("after nature")
  • Origin: Andronicus of Rhodes' organization of Aristotle's writings
  • Aristotle: He called it "first philosophy" (study of being, attributes, and causes)
  • Original nature: 14 rolls of personal and esoteric notes
  • Consolidation: 13th century as a special discipline on being qua being
  • Key influence: Muslim thinkers (Avicenna and Averroes)
  • Aetiology definition: Science of supreme causes
  • Ontology definition: Science of being qua being
  • Definition of Theology: Science of divine things
  • Definition of Useology: Science of substance
  • Metaphysical Unit: Ontology and useology are universal by predication and causality
  • Subiectum: The being as being (primarily substance)
  • Kant: Speculative knowledge of reason isolated from experience
  • Objective: To know the ultimate general principles and the profound truth of things
  • Key questions: What is being? What exists? Why does something exist? Why am I here?
  • Key concepts: Being, nothingness, existence, essence, world, space, time, mind, God, freedom, change, causality, and end
  • Traditional problems: Universals, categorial structure, space, and time

Nature, concepts, and branches of metaphysics

  • Speculative metaphysics: starts from a supreme principle (God, being, the monad, etc.)
  • Inductive metaphysics: seeks a metaphysical image by unifying the particular sciences
  • Reductionist metaphysics: a construct based on presuppositions for knowing and acting
  • Entity: the essence or property that defines the nature of a thing
  • Absolute: something exempt from bonds or connections with other things
  • Rational psychology: study of the soul or mind through reason
  • Themes of rational psychology: immortality, free will, spirituality, and the body-soul relationship
  • Christian Wolff: key figure of rational psychology (work: "German Metaphysics", 1720)

Evolution of Ontology and Metaphysics: From Parmenides to Aristotle

  • Arché: the single and universal principle sought by the Pre-Socratics
  • Parmenides: founder of ontology and the concept of abstract being
  • Determinations of being: ungenerated, incorruptible, immutable, indivisible, one, homogeneous
  • Principles of Parmenides: being is, non-being is not; no transition between the two; thinking is being
  • Being: unlimited (spatial) and eternal (temporal)
  • Socrates: moral intellectualism (evil is ignorance)
  • Maieutics: a technique of questioning to reach the logos
  • Plato: Theory of Forms (universals, eternal, paradigms)
  • Methexis: the participation of particular things in the ideas
  • Anamnesis: the theory of recollection of pre-existing ideas
  • Aristotle: Metaphysics as the doctrine of being as such
  • Unmoved mover: the unmoved generator of all movement
  • Ousia: independent substance (that which exists in itself)
  • Accident: a characteristic dependent on the substance
  • Eidos: the determining form that constitutes the essence of being

Metaphysics in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

  • Influence: Greek philosophy entered the Islamic world via Christian cenobites and heretical groups.
  • Translation: Interest in Greek medicine drove translations into Persian and later into Arabic.
  • Aristotelian Influence: Islamic metaphysics was primarily based on Aristotle.
  • Rediscovery: Aristotle's Metaphysics was rediscovered in the Christian world in the mid-12th century.
  • Scholastic Themes: Include the problem of universals, hylomorphism, existence/essence, and causality.
  • Causality: Based on the works Physics, On the Heavens, and On Generation and Corruption.
  • Hierarchy: Metaphysics was called the "queen of the sciences" by Thomas Aquinas.
  • Medieval Objective: To reconcile ancient philosophy with religion through pure reason and late Neoplatonism.
  • Key Concepts: Analogy of being, doctrine of transcendentals, and proofs for the existence of God.
  • Creation: Debate over creatio ex nihilo and the access to knowledge of God through reason or faith.
  • Dualism: Division between sensory perception/pure thought and the "here"/"hereafter."
  • Descartes' Definition: Metaphysics is the root of knowledge.
  • Descartes' Substances: Thinking substance, extended substance, and infinite substance (God).
  • Descartes' Method: Everything that can be doubted is false; use of Cogito ergo sum.
  • Descartes' Arguments: Evil Demon, ontological argument, and mind-body dualism.
  • Modern Division: General metaphysics (ontology) and special metaphysics (three branches).

Metaphysical classifications and the turn toward transcendental and German idealism

  • Philosophy of nature: also called rational cosmology.
  • Philosophy of man: includes metaphysical psychology, philosophical psychology, rational psychology, metaphysical anthropology, and philosophical anthropology.
  • Natural theology: also called theodicy or rational theology.
  • Christian Wolff's classification: considered canonical in metaphysics.
  • Kant's Copernican Revolution: metaphysics must be grounded in the study of the subject and the conditions of possibility of knowledge.
  • Critique of Pure Reason (1781-1787): an examination of reason detached from the sensible.
  • Impossibility of traditional metaphysics: human beings lack the faculty to know the spiritual through sensible experience.
  • Speculative-constructive realm: where topics such as God, the soul, and the freedom of the will remain.
  • Synthetic a priori judgments: allow mathematics and physics to achieve universal and necessary knowledge.
  • German Idealism: reality is a spiritual event where real being is surpassed by ideal being.
  • Absolute knowledge: validation of knowledge from the perspective of an absolute subject.
  • Hegel's dialectical identity: the absolute is realized through the overcoming of non-identical moments.
  • Science of Logic: the last great system of Western metaphysics developed by Hegel.

Philosophical perspectives on metaphysics and materialism

  • Dialectical materialism: only matter is real and processes occur through contradiction
  • Marx's Thesis 11: philosophy must transform the world, not just interpret it
  • Nietzsche: Plato is responsible for the split of being (sensible vs. intelligible)
  • Heidegger: metaphysics is the essence of Western thought
  • Heidegger: metaphysics is the "forgetfulness of being" and the ontotheological drive
  • Heidegger: thought must take a leap outside of metaphysics
  • Analytic philosophy: initially skeptical due to a lack of verifiability
  • Post-structuralism: critiques the subordination of difference to entities in metaphysics

Bibliography and reference resources on metaphysics

  • Aristotle: Metaphysics (trilingual edition, 1997)
  • Thomas Aquinas: De ente et essentia
  • René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (1637)
  • Gottfried Leibniz: Discourse on Metaphysics (1686)
  • Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783)
  • Martin Heidegger: What is Metaphysics? (1929), Introduction to Metaphysics (1953), Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929)
  • Baruch Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
  • José Ortega y Gasset: Some Lessons on Metaphysics
  • Jean Grondin: Introduction to Metaphysics (2006)
  • José Luis Pardo: Metaphysics (2006)
  • Isacio Pérez Fernández: Arabic Influence on the Term Metaphysica (1979)
  • Online resources: Wiktionary, Wikipedia, Philosophical Glossary, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Flashcard preview (6 of 40)

  1. 01

    Etymology of metaphysics (from the Greek μετὰ [τὰ] φυσικά):

    "after nature"

  2. 02

    Aristotle designated metaphysics as:

    "first philosophy"

  3. 03

    Which branch of metaphysics studies separate substances and the ultimate causes of reality?

    Theology

  4. 04

    Which part of metaphysics investigates which entities exist and which do not, beyond appearances?

    Ontology

  5. 05

    Weak version of the thesis on the impossibility of metaphysics (Hume, Kant):

    They possess meaning, but it is impossible to know which are true or false

  6. 06

    Etymology of "metaphysics": what does the Greek term μετὰ φύσις mean?

    "after nature" or "after physics"

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