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Metaphysics
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Metaphysics is a branch of Philosophy. It is concerned with the explanation of
the fundemental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. In a broad way, it
tries to answer the questions: What is there? And What is it like?
A central branch of metaphysics is ontology. Ontology tries to deal with the nature of
being, becoming, existence, or reality.
Aristotle proposed the first of these investigations to question what exists (the
world, the being). He called it ‘first philosophy’, sometimes also ‘the science of
being’ (moreorless what ‘ontology’ means); but at some point in antiquity his
writings on the topic came to be known as the ‘metaphysics’ – from the Greek for
‘after natural things’, that is, what comes after the study of nature.
What it means:
The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά (metá, "beyond",
"upon" or "after") and φυσικά (physiká, "physics"). It was first used as the title for
several of Aristotle's works, because they were usually anthologized after the works
on physics in complete editions. The prefix meta ("after") indicates that these works
come "after" the chapters on physics. However, Aristotle himself did not call the
subject of these books "Metaphysics": he referred to it as "first philosophy."
However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic
reasons for its appropriateness. For instance, it was understood to mean "the science
of the world beyond nature" (physis in Greek), that is, the science of the immaterial.
Again, it was understood to refer to the chronological or pedagogical order among
our philosophical studies, so that the "metaphysical sciences" would mean "those that
we study after having mastered the sciences that deal with the physical world".
Philosophers and theories:
There are several metaphysicians in different periods of history. And also there are
different theories trying to explain the world. To mention some of the famous ones:
Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Immanuel Kant,
Friedrich Nietzsche, JeanPaul Sartre, and others.
As for the theories involved, to mention some: Dualism, Nihilism, phenomenalism,
existentialism, materialism, relativism, free will, idealism, and other.
Concepts would involve: essence, existence, meaning, matter, intelligence, mind,
object, subject, soul, to mention few.
Thinking about reality:
Drop a ball. Notice that you do not see any obvious connection between the
ball and the earth yet they are obviously connected because we see the effect of this
connection, the ball moves (accelerates) towards the earth. The same argument
applies to the Earth orbiting the sun, an electron in an atom, how we can see stars
across the universe.
We give these connections names, e.g. light and gravity, but no one knew what these
hidden causal connections were.
So you see the problem of metaphysics is simple and profound to solve it requires
true knowledge of physical reality, such that we could understand this hidden causal
connection that our senses tell us must exist, yet we do not see.
This is known to philosophers as Hume's Problem of Causation and Necessary
Connection, but really it is common knowledge that dates back to the ancients the
Problem of the One and the Many.
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It must certainly be allowed, that nature has kept us at a great distance from all her
secrets, and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of
objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles on which the
influence of those objects entirely depends. (Hume, 1737)
When we look about us towards external objects, and consider the operation of
causes, we are never able, in a single instance, to discover any power or necessary
connexion; any quality, which binds the effect to the cause, and renders the one an
infallible consequence of the other. (Hume, 1737)
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And those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers.
(Plato, Republic, 380BC)
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A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and
space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate
from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of
prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our
circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
beauty… The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure
and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. … We shall
require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert
Einstein, 1954)