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Metaphysics
The Philosophers Approach to 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, thinghood and
personhood, space and time.
 20th Century American Philosopher, Wilfrid Sellers, said
that metaphysics is the study of how things, in the most
general sense of the term ‘things’, hang together, in the
most general sense of this term.
The First Philosophy
 Many philosophers call Metaphysics the ‘first
philosophy’ because it examines questions that lie at
the heart of many other areas of philosophy.
 For example, take this epistemological question:
 “What can I know?”
 Metaphysicians would say that people should determine what
knowing I – the self – really is.
The First Philosophy
 Another example, an ethical question:
 “Why be moral?”
 Metaphysicians would say that people should first determine
whether they are even free to choose to be moral.
 In other words, metaphysical questions must be
answered before many other philosophical questions
can be answered.
The Philosophers Approach to
Metaphysics
 Metaphysicians begin by asking questions.
 One of the most basic questions is also one of the
simplest – and most difficult: “What ultimately is
reality?”
This Question Leads to Many
Others…
 “What are the basic constituents (building blocks) of reality?
 How many building blocks are there?
 One or many? What are they made of? Are they material or
mental? Or neither?
 Once these questions are answered, they lead to many
others:
 What is mind? What is matter? What is it to exist?
Impact on Daily Life?
 Many metaphysical questions have direct bearing on
people’s lives.
 These include questions like:
 What is a person? What is the self? What is the relation of
my mind to my body? Am I free or is my will determined for
me?
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).
A Metaphysician’s Approach
 Metaphysicians believe that trying to answer
metaphysical questions by citing empirical data – data
gathered through the five senses – is an inherently
unsatisfying approach.
 As a result they try to supply answers that are general
and durable enough that they will not become outdated.
Group activity
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What are the ultimate constituents of reality?
Does God exist?
What is being?
What is the relation of mind to matter?
What is the self?
What is personal identity?
Are human actions free?
What is the meaning of life?
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
 Allegory  Form of extended metaphor, in which
objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are
equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative
itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social,
religious, or political significance, and characters are
often personifications of abstract ideas as charity,
greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two
meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
 Find the symbols in the Allegory of the Cave.
 What do you think the symbols represent?
 Relate how the meaning in this story applies to
philosophy, society and/or yourself.
 Provide other examples of this type of enlightenment in
our society/lives.
Symbols
 Cave Physical world we experience with senses.
 Daylight World (outside of the cave) Intelligible reality,
the world of truth, world of physical form.
 Prisoners Vast majority of people.
 Chains Sophistry which pulls away from truth, repression
of truth.
 Sophistry A plausible, but misleading or fallacious argument.
 Sun Form of good, enlightenment, truth (overwhelmed at
first, but then are unable to return to previous ignorance).
 Shadows Illusions of truth/not reality.