PHILOSOPHY &

CURRENT ISSUES
TOPIC 5:
METAPHYSICS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Explain the relationship between Human and Nature in the
context of understanding Past Cosmology and Current
Ecology

Explain the beliefs and relationship between Human and

God based on the context of Theology/Beliefs/Spirituality

Describe the formation and development of

metaphysical systems
 Human –
Nature
– God

Metaphysics
Systems

META-
PHYSICS
 METAPHYSICS
• Meta + physics:
 meta = beyond/above/above;
 physics = material/physical nature;
 metaphysics = something that transcends physical boundaries.

• Two main meanings of metaphysics:

 philosophical - the study at the most abstract, or most general, level of
a thing/phenomenon/nature.
 Example: cause and effect.

• related to religion - phenomena outside the real world.

 Examples: life after death, heaven, hell.
 Supernatural things cannot be proved by non -senses
 rational and empirical.
 METAPHYSICS?

• There are four names for this branch of

philosophy, namely:
1) first philosophy
2) first science
3) wisdom
4) theology
 METAPHYSICS
Philosophical elements
According to Aristotle, metaphysics is a study of
the most abstract or most general level of a thing or a
phenomenon relating to nature.
For example, we think of an object such as a chair. The
chair has a color and a place in a space and also has its
own smell that we can smell, or we can feel whether the
chair is hard or soft, and so on. all of them are special
attributes associated with the chair, but if we remove all
of those attributes, what is left of the chair?
What lives according to Aristotle is substance, which
has no special qualities. What is meant by substance?
Substance is considered by Aristotle as a combination of
the mass and shape of an object.
Related to
religion and
belief
It refers to phenomena outside the real
world.
For example, the existence of god, life
after death, life in the realm of barzakh,
the concept of heaven and hell.
All of these are things we cannot
confirm through our senses.
But it can be confirmed through other
means i.e. revelation and so on.
 Idealism
ONTOLOGY
Materialism

Theism
Monism
Politics

META-
THEOLOGY
PHYSICS Atheism

Agnostics

UNIVERSAL
SCIENCE
 Metaphysics and Religion
• In religious understanding, it is said that the reality is not only limited to the bodily
nature which can be known through rationalist methods, empiricism and the like.

• But that reality can also consist of something that is not bodily in nature such as the
spirit that is in our body, the existence of angels, jinn and so on.

• In terms of religion, the reality is not limited only to the material nature or the nature
of purely spiritual ideas, but encompasses both.

• The reality of the religious view involves the body as well as the spiritual.

• It is clearly different from the materialist view which rejects spiritual reality or mental
reality.
 FIELD OF METAPHYSICAL DISCUSSION
1. Ontology (theory of nature)
2. Causality and cosmogony (origin of the universe)
3. Cosmology (phenomena of the universe)
4. Subjects, predicates and taxonomies
5. Necessity and contingency
6. Mind and matter
7. Free-will and determinism
HUMAN RELATIONSHIP
WITH NATURE
 Theory of Materialism
• Anything that can be seen/exists.
 Examples: mountains, rice drive.

• Assume the existence of body and matter is real.

• Ideas have no reality of their own and depend on something of a bodily

nature.
 The idea comes from the brain, it still has to do with the body (brain).

• Denying spiritual things/invisible.

 Reject religion.
 Oxygen and wind are something that can be detected by the senses because
there is an effect.
 Theory of Idealism
• The existence of immaterial objects.
• Ideas are not material or physical.
• How to interpret the existence of an idea or the existence of a
• discussed in religion as an example of jinn.

• Reality is not material, but mental or idea/spiritual.

• Reality is not perceived directly, but perceived is the sensation of an object.

• Only the realm of the mind exists and the physical realm is unrecognizable
• by directly.
• Open space to spiritual beliefs, examples of spirits.
HUMAN RELATIONSHIP WITH
GOD
NATURAL TEOLOGY AND
PHILOSOPHY OF GOD
 HUMAN HORIZONTAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Man is a small world, nature is a big man (Hamka).

• Mechanism
o Nature and man are assumed to be like machines and beings are mechanics.
o The mental process for explaining a phenomenon is uniform in terms of its behavior.

• Determinism
o Human actions can be explained causally or according to established laws.
o Divided into two:
• Intrinsic: every event happens due to oneself.
• Extrinsic: every event occurs due to external factors/beyond human control.

• Realism
o Nature exists realistically and objectively.
o Example: Darwinism - nature exists on its own.
 GOD

NATURE HUMAN
BEINGS
 Religious Metaphysics

• Reality is not limited to the body.

• Religion is not limited to material and ideas, it

encompasses both.

• Religion rejects materialism.

 GOD

Theism

GOD
Atheism Agnostics

NATURE HUMAN
BEINGS
 HUMAN VERTICAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Discussed in natural theology and philosophy of god.

• Does God exist?

• Theism:
o The understanding that the god exists, even if his existence cannot be traced.
o Monotheism - God is one.
o Polytheism - there is more than one god.

• Atheism:
o The understanding of the reality of nature does not exist, which exists only materially.

• Agnostism
o Hesitant
METAPHYSICAL SYSTEM
VARIOUS METAPHYSIC SYSTEMS
• Atheism
• Theism
• Monotheism
• Agnostics
• Polytheism
• Monism
• Pluralism
• Scientism
• Mechanism
• Realism
• Idealism
• Nominalism
 METAPHYSICAL FOR THE
PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF
METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE
• Late 19th century - philosophers of science who disliked the mystical and
irrational thinking of European society.

• Response to primitive thinking.

• Reject anything that is not verifiable (not verifiable) by experience and does
not have any meaning.

• It was officially revived by Moritz Schlick in 1925 with Ernst Mach.

• Science replaces metaphysics.

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF METAPHYSICAL
SCIENCE
• Auguste Comte:
o Theology
o Metaphysics
o Science

• Ernst Mach (science = positivism)

o A philosophical system based on real facts
o and the laws of science.
o A statement can be accepted if its truth is tested empirically.
 TITLE OF EACH PHILOSOPHY COURSE LECTURE AND CURRENT ISSUES BASED ON THE DOMAIN OF

LECTURE: METAPHYSICS
PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS

LECTURE6 CONCEPT QUESTION REFERENCE

METAPHYSICS

HUMAN RELATIONSHIP Human's horizontal relationship with Why is the horizontal relationship of ALatifS, Sejarah Perkembangan Falsafah Sains
(ms 80-113)
Nature Man with Nature important in the
WITH NATURE understanding of Metaphysics? J, Sudarminta, Agama dan Kosmologi Sama-
Sama Berkisah Tentang Keagungan Tuhan (ms
119-141) dlm Zainal Abidin Bagir et. al. (2006).
Ilmu, Etika dan Agama: Menyingkap Tabir Alam
dan Manusia. CRCS:Jogjkarta.
Karlina Supelli, Bercanda dengan Tuhan (ms 39-
90) dlm Zainal Abidin Bagir et. al. (2006).

HUMAN RELATIONSHIP Human’s vertical relationship with God Why is Man’s vertical relationship with God Louis Leahy, Sains dan Agama dalam Perdebatan
(ms 19-35) dlm Zainal Abidin Bagir et. al. (2006).
important in the understanding of
WITH GOD Metaphysics? Ilmu, Etika dan Agama: Menyingkap Tabir Alam
dan Manusia. CRCS:Jogjkarta.
Machasin, Penciptaan dalam Islam dan
Tanggapan terhadap Teori-teori Ilmiah Baru, (ms
143-166) dlm Zainal Abidin Bagir et. al. (2006).
Zainal Abidin, Sains dan Agama-Agama:
Perbandingan Beberapa Tipologi Mutakhir (ms
3-18) dlm Zainal Abidin Bagir et. al. (2006).

METAPHYSICAL SYSTEMS Metaphysical Systems Give briefly the characteristics of the ALatifS, Metafizik dan Epistemologi (ms 59-79)
Al-Attas, SMN. (1995). Prolegomena to the
Three Metaphysical Systems?
Metaphysics of Islam. Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC.

METAPHYSICS FOR THE Metaphysics and the development of What is the relationship between ALatifS, Beberapa Mazhab Utama Kini (ms 114-
156)
science Metaphysics and the development of
PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE science?