Download Intro PowerPoint for Metaphysics

METAPHYSICS
The study of the nature of reality
POPEYE STUDIES DESCARTES
METAPHYSICAL
QUESTIONS
 What is reality?
 Why is there something and not nothing?
 What is a being?
 What is a person?
 Am I free?
 Is there a supreme being?
METAPHYSICAL
QUESTIONS
 Who am I?
 Why am I here?
 Where did I come from?
 Where am I going?
DEFINITIONS
 Metaphysics: the philosophy of being which seeks to answer
questions about existence.
 Metaphysics: study of questions about the world left unanswered
by the natural sciences, such as those regarding First Causes; Laws of
the Universe; Mind/Body; Freedom/Determinism.
 First used by Aristotle who wrote first his Physics (concerning the
physical world) and the Metaphysics (beyond the physical world).
2 FOUNDATIONAL
PRINCIPLES
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Principle of non-contradiction - no real being can both
be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.
Principle of sufficient reason: every being has the
sufficient reason for existence in itself or in another. It
is not possible for something to be its own cause
(otherwise it would violate the Principle of noncontradiction). Every being that does not possess the
sufficient reason for its own existence in itself must have
an efficient cause (necessarily extrinsic to itself).
THEORIES
Common Sense Realism
• What people perceive under ordinary conditions is
reality.
THEORIES
 Idealism
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George Berkeley 18th Century
Denies existence of material things
Reality is ideas and the minds that hold these ideas
“Esse est percipi” (“to be is to be perceived”)
Objects are ideas that God placed in humans
THEORIES
 Platonic Realism
• Reality is ideal forms or ideas that are timeless,
unchanging, immaterial, and more perfect than the
world of changeable things
• Forms in the World of Being
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• Things in the World of Becoming
THEORIES
Materialism or Physicalism
• Pre-Socratic Philosophers
• Everything is physical; Reality consists of matter.
• Matter – particles in motion and forces like gravity.
THEORIES
Monism
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Reality is one all encompassing thing
All particular things are expressions of this one thing
Things can be material or mental
Baruch Spinoza argued it could also be divine
String Theory – everything is composed of onedimensional strings of energy
Materialism and Idealism are Monists Theories
THEORIES
Dualism
• Descartes
• Reality consists of two things: Mind and Matter
• Interactionism is a common version of dualism
• Mind and Body co-exist as separate entities
M AT E R I A L I S M V E R S U S D UA L I S M
 Materialism
• Man is simply an
animal, and brains are
simply chemical
systems
• No soul
• Humans are like
computers.
 Dualism
• Mental is separate
from Physical
• Mind and Soul can
pre-exist the body
and survive bodily
death
• Dualists believe in the
afterlife, and the
paranormal
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
 What do you think is really
 Where did we come from?
real?
 Why are we here?
 What is ultimate reality?
 Where are we going?
 Why is there something
 Do we have a mind distinct
rather than nothing?
from the body? Or is the mind
 Are you a materialist or a
simply brain states?
dualist?
 Are we free?