Download Chapter 6 Introducing Metaphysics

Philosophy: Questions and Theories
CHAPTER 6
INTRODUCING METAPHYSICS
What is Metaphysics?
 metaphysics is the study of the basic
structures of reality: being and nothingness,
time and eternity, freedom and determinism,
mind and body, thing hood and personhood,
space and time, and a supreme being and
nature
The Philosophers Approach to
Metaphysics
 the most basic question in metaphysics is
“What is reality?”
 leads to questions like: What makes reality?
How many building blocks of reality are there?
What are they make of? Are they material or
mental? What is matter? What is mind? What
is it to exist? What is “being” and why is there
something and nothing?
 has direct relevance to life
 a scientist would say that reality is
composed of clouds of subatomic particles
that are held together by an
electromagnetic field, including people
 this explains what matter is but not reality
 metaphysical thought is developed
through reasoning and not empirical
thought
What Philosophers Have Said
 Common Sense Realism
 non-philosophical theory that believes that
what people perceive under ordinary
conditions is reality and the world consists of
objects that can be perceived by the senses
 the issue with this is that it is considered to be
motivated by ignorance and laziness rather than the
quest for truth
What Philosophers Have Said
(Cont’d)
 Idealism
 George Berkley 18th century
 denied the existence of material things, saying that
reality ultimately consists of ideas and the minds
that house them
 what people see as objects are just ideas that
were placed to them by God
What Philosophers Have Said
(Cont’d)
 Platonic realism
 Plato
 reality consist of ideal forms
that are timeless,
unchanging, immaterial and
more perfect than the world
of changeable that people
encounter on a daily basis
What Philosophers Have Said
(Cont’d)
 Materialism
 proposed by the pre-Socratics
 everything is physical and reality consists of matter
 matter is particles in motion
 Hobbes was a materialist
What Philosophers Have Said
(Cont’d)
 Monists
 say that reality consists of an
all-encompassing thing and
that all particular things are
manifestations or expressions
of this one thing
 Spinoza thought that this one
thing was divine in nature
What Philosophers Have Said
(Cont’d)
 Dualists
 reality consist of mind and matter and they are
different but interact
 Descartes supported this view
How Philosophers Have Said
It
 Ontology
 area of metaphysics that deals with nature of
being and reality
How Philosophers Have Said
It (cont’d)
 Determinism
 theory every event,
including human
behaviour and
choices, is determined
by a chain of causes
extending back in
time
How Philosophers Have Said
It (cont’d)
 Substance
 something with independent existence
 the basic element of which things are made
 Essence
 the fundamental nature of a thing
 its unchanging blueprint
 the thing that makes it what it is
Why Metaphysics Matters
 e.g.: Does a supreme being exist?
 to many if so then lives have a purpose, values
have an objective grounding and death does
not bring annihilation
 if not then, to many, anything is permissible
and people would invent his/her own meaning
for life
 e.g.: What is a person?
 this matters in medicine, law and ethics
Reality and Appearance
 Plato’s cave raises one of the central debates of
metaphysics; how to distinguish between reality
and appearance
 most people consider what they experience to be real
 the philosopher is willing to leave the cave and
consider what is on the other side of appearances
Plato’s Ideal World
 Plato believed that people’s concepts of things
came from an ideal thing
 this ideal thing exists independently of us, is
unchangeable, is not visible or located and has always
existed
 but this does not exist in time and space because this
would mean that it is subject to change and therefore
not perfect
 even though this thing can not be seen or placed in
time or space it still exists as a thing
 like an idea
 this is the ultimate model for all of these things and
everything that is a representation of it draws its
characteristic from it and also partakes in it
The Forms
 because the ideal thing gives form to things,
Plato called this a form
 this form is the essence of that thing
 there is a form for every particular item in the
world from actual material things, to people,
to ideas like justice or courage or beauty
 all forms of these copy and partake in their
particular ideal forms
The Forms (cont’d)
 not all forms equal in
metaphysical stature
 some more inclusive
and some more
specific
 e.g. form of horse is
under broader form of
animal and animals fall
under broader form of
being
 form of good is the
highest form
The Forms (cont’d)
 to Plato the form of good is the source of all
reality, intelligibility and truth
 the allegory of the cave is about an encounter with
the form of good
 the journey of the prisoner is the journey from the
world in which things are only available to perception
to a world of ideal forms
 although Aristotle agreed with Plato’s idea of
looking beyond the surface to see universal
structures, he did not believe in the existence of
perfect forms
 these structures to him were embedded in particular
things in this world
Taoism: Reality and the Tao
 Loazi believed that reason
was not capable of
comprehending reality
 Taoists believe that all
things come from the Tao,
which sustains all things
 this is the fundamental
principle of the universe as a
whole
 the Tao is described in
negative terms: it is not this
and it is not that
Taoism: Reality and the Tao
 all things in nature
are in constant flux
and behind this flux
is a deep pattern:
the endless cycle of
development and
decline
 the Tao is
responsible for this
pattern
Taoism: Reality and the Tao
 the oneness of Tao is expressed
in nature through yin and yang
 yin is the passive element in
nature and yang is the active
element
 yin is the are being, receiving, night,
rest, earth and decline
 yang are doing, giving, day, activity,
heaven and development
 they are distinct yet inseparable
 the Taoist strives to be at one
with the Tao and not caught up
in the desires of the senses
The Nature of Being
 basic ontological questions are: What is
being? What does it mean to be? Is “being” a
thing, a substance, a process or a kind of
super-thing
 to Plato “being” was an ideal and thus timeless
and second in power to the form of good and all
things that exist partake of this form
 to Aristotle “being” is the substance that all
properties are ascribed but it is not itself a
property
 to Laozi “being” was the Tao and behind all
existence and thus cannot be described
The Nature of Being
 to Heidegger in Being and Time argued that
being was not an entity such as a special form
or substance

argued that the first question of philosophy is
What is the meaning of “being” and not How do
we know?
 argued that “being” is not a thing at all
 “being” is the background in which beings exist
 e.g. like light
 objects are made visible through light but light itself
is not seen and in itself not an object
 “being” is not a being but it is by means of “being”
that beings stand out and become intelligible
 Heidegger argued that human beings are not
things

instead of being defined by factual properties,
humans are defined by future-oriented
possibilities of “being”
The Self
 What is the self? What is
it made of? How do
people get to know it?
When they do what are
they exploring? How
many selves do people
have
Varieties of the Self
 Substance theory
 according to Descartes the self is
a determinate and unitary thing,
a substance, that persists over
time
 a mental substance, but not the
brain as the self controls the
brain and body
 cannot be divided and is not
subject to change
 supports changing experiences but
does not itself change
 it owns the experiences
Varieties of the Self
 Bundle theory
 proposed by Hume as well as
Buddhist philosophers, says that
the self is a bundle or collection
of bits and pieces of experience
 when Hume looked
introspectively at himself he
found memories, perceptions,
fleeting ideas, passing desires
and other bits and pieces without
a continuity or thread and thus
concluded that the self is a
loosely knit bundle of
perceptions
Varieties of the Self
 Narrative theory
 maintains that the self is
defined by narrative
structure and unity
 people narrate their
experiences
 they are the central
characters in their
narratives
Varieties of the Self
 Project theory
 proposed by Sartre, this
theory maintains that the
self needs to be thought
of in temporal terms, that
is like an event in time
rather than a thing
 the self is a dynamic and
future oriented project and is
thus always under
construction