Introduction to Philosophy

Dr. Syed Nizar

1
 Introduction to metaphysics – I
Ontology : The Philosophical Investigations of Reality
2
 Reading Materials
Basic Reading List

Blackburn, Simon (1999) Think: A compelling introduction to

philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1 – 13.
 Lecture Outline
ØWhat is metaphysics?
ØWhat is Ontology?
ØCategories of Ontology
 What is Metaphysics?
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy which studies the
ultimate principle or the basic stuff of things, that examines
the true nature of reality, whether visible or invisible.

Attempts to answer two questions:

(a) What is out there (reality)?
(b) Why is there something rather than nothing?
(C) Who am I and why and I here?
 What is Metaphysics?

Ø The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words “metá”

("beyond" or "after") and “physiká” ("physics").
 What is Metaphysics?
Ø First used by Aristotle who wrote first his Physics (concerning
the physical world) and the Metaphysics (beyond the physical
world)

Ø However, Aristotle himself did not call the subject of these

books "Metaphysics"; he referred to it as "first philosophy.“ The
editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to
have placed the books on first philosophy right after another
work, Physics, and called them (ta meta ta physika biblia) or
"the books that come after the [books on] physics". This was
misread by Latin scholiasts, who thought it meant "the science
of what is beyond the physical".
 The Big Metaphysical Questions

Ø What is out there (reality)?

Ø Why is there something rather than nothing?
Ø Does the world really exist?
Ø Do mind or soul exist?
Ø What is consciousness?
Ø Do we have free will?
Ø Does God exist?
Ø What is the meaning of life?

In this lecture, we will look at the first three questions.

 What is Ontology?
The first three questions are about reality or being, which
are usually known as ontological questions.

What is Ontology then….

Ontology is used as a synonym for Metaphysics. “Ontology”
derives from Greek “ontos” (being) and “logos” (science) –
science of being/reality.
Ontology refers to the theory of reality, or the theory of being.
It deals with the question of appearance vs. reality:
What does it mean to exist? How is my existence different from
that of a chair, or a tree, or a chicken patty? Is there even a
difference?
 Categories of Ontology
The question of the ultimate being or reality has two complementary
aspects:
(i) the nature or kind of the ultimate stuff or about
(ii) its number.

When it comes to the question about the nature or kind of ultimate

stuff, the answer is given by two metaphysical theories of :
(i)Materialism
(ii) Idealism

When it is about number, four theories are usually mentioned:

(i) Monism (ii) Dualism
(iii)Pluralism (vi) Nihilism
Categories of Ontology: Concerning nature
of Reality
(i)Materialism
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that
matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things,
including mental states and consciousness, are results of material
interactions of material things.

(ii) Idealism
Idealism is the metaphysical theory that asserts that reality consists
of ideas, thoughts, minds, or selves rather than material objects and
forces. Idealism is also called spiritualism.
Categories of Ontology: Concerning Number
Monism:
Ø The theory of reality according to which the ultimate stuff or reality is one. This
one (in qualitative sense) may be mind, matter, God, or some neutral or
unknown substance.
Ex. The view that holds that mind is that one ultimate reality is known as
spiritualism or idealism, that matter is that reality is materialism, that God is
that reality is monotheism, or that the reality is neither mind, matter, or God,
but something more ultimate, neutral or unknown substance is known as
neutral monism.
Dualism:
Ø Dualism is that metaphysical theory which claims that the number of being or
reality is two.
Ex. Descartes (“mind” and “matter”) and Sankhya system of Indian philosophy
(“purusa” and “prakriti”) are dualists. Dualistic ideas are visible in Chinese
concepts of “Yin” and “Yang.”
Categories of Ontology: Concerning Number
Pluralism:
Ø The view that despite our best efforts, common sense correctly tells us that reality is
composed of many different kinds of real things.

Ex. Vaishesika school. They claim the universe formed by a god out of atoms of earth,
air, fire, and water, as well as out of space, time, ether, mind, and soul, all conceived as
substances coexisting eternally with the god. Greek atomists (“atoms” - Leucippus &
Democritus), German philosopher Leibniz (“monads”), and American pragmatist
William James are pluralists.

Nihilism:
Ø The view that nothing is real, or that nothing deserves to exist.
Ex. Mādhyamaka, one of the Buddhist school of philosophy, claims reality does not
exist.
 Nature of Reality: Idealism
ØIdealism is the metaphysical theory that asserts that
reality consists of ideas, thoughts, minds, or selves rather
than material objects and forces. Idealism is also called
spiritualism.

ØCharacteristics: (a) Spirit or consciousness is primary; (b)

Consciousness existed prior to matter and brought it into
being.

ØTwo forms of Idealism:

(i) Objective Idealism
(ii) Subjective Idealism
 Nature of Reality: Idealism

(i) Objective Idealism

ØObjective idealists insist that world is “created” by some
kind of super-individual or objective consciousness (e.g.,
“absolute idea”, “universal will”, or “God”.) Objective
idealists include Plato, Hegel, Lotze, and Royce.

(ii) Subjective Idealism

ØSubjective idealists assert that the world is “created” by
the consciousness of the individual – the subject. Man
only cognizes his own thoughts or emotions. George
Berkeley was a subjective idealist.
 Nature of Reality: Idealism
ØIDEALISM: Idealism is the metaphysical theory that
asserts that reality consists of ideas, thoughts, minds, or
selves rather than material objects and forces. Idealism is
also called spiritualism.
ØCharacteristics: (a) Spirit or consciousness is primary; (b)
Consciousness existed prior to matter and brought it into
being.
ØTwo forms of Idealism:
(i) Objective Idealism
(ii) Subjective Idealism
 Objective Idealism: Plato

ØLife and works: As the son of an influential Athenian

parents Plato began his philosophical career as a student
of Socrates. When the master died, Plato travelled to
Egypt and Italy, studied with students of Pythagoras, and
spent several years advising the ruling family of Syracuse.
Eventually, he returned to Athens and established his own
school of philosophy at the Academy.
ØFor students enrolled in his Academy, Plato tried both to
pass on the heritage of a Socratic style of thinking
(dialectical reasoning) and to guide their progress
through mathematical learning to the achievement of
abstract philosophical truth.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

ØPlato’s Theory of Ideas about Reality .

Øhis concepts of reality and knowledge have had a

profound impact.

ØThe doctrine of a permanent realm of eternal

Forms that shape our material world.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

Why Ideas or Forms are ultimately real for

Plato?
ØAccording to Plato, experience shows that nothing in this
world endures. All objects perceived by the senses are
perpetually changing, becoming, perishing; they never
really are. Now, in contrast to the shifting quality of the
multiple objects which make up the world of sense,
there exists general notions such as “man”, “justice”, and
“triangle”. To these general notions sense experience
does not give us any corresponding objects. For no one
ever see triangle as such; we only see particular
triangles. Now, particular triangle, or particular good
man is subject to erasure, but triangle itself or goodness
itself which are the essences of various triangles and
good things are permanent and unchanging.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

• They are the true beings of things, which Plato

termed as Forms or Ideas. And these forms are
eternal patterns of which the objects that we see are
only copies. Ordinary objects are imperfect and
changeable, but they faintly copy the perfect and
immutable Forms.
• Plato’s theory of forms postulates the existence of a
level of reality or "world" inhabited by the ideal or
forms of all things and concepts. Thus a form exists,
for objects like tables and rocks and for concepts,
such as beauty and justice. In the dialogue Meno,
Plato describes a form as the "common nature"
possessed by a group of things or concepts.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

How the forms are known?

In the Phaedo, Plato argues that the mind discovers the

Forms through recollection: before it was united with
the body, the soul was acquainted with the Forms. Men
now recollect what their souls knew in their prior state
of existence. Visible things remind them of the
essences previously known.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas
Ø Consider, for example, our knowledge of equality. For Plato, the
sight of equal things (equal sticks, equal stones, etc.) suggests to
us the notion of Equality itself. But the notion of equality is
different from particular equal things as is proved by the fact that
particular equal sticks or stones, while remaining the same, may
appear equal to one person and unequal to another. But “equals
themselves” never appear unequals, nor equality to be
unequality. Now the first time we saw equal things suggested to
us the notion of equality. This notion of equality must be in our
mind before we see any equal things, since, being thus suggested
by the sight of equal things, we recollected it.
Now the question is: when does the idea of equality come in our
mind?
Ø It is clear that we do not get this idea from the senses, because
senses provide us only the things which are proximately equal.
The notion of equality must have in our minds before we have our
senses of sight, touch, etc. that is to say, the notion of equality
must be in our mind before we are born. The soul therefore must
have existed before we were born in a human body.
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

The Forms actually exist and are the reality (Being) of

which the observed and material world (Becoming) is
simply a shadowy copy.
Plato divided the universe into two different
realms
1. The intelligible world of Ideas or Forms (Being)
2. The perceptual world we see around us
(Becoming).
 Objective Idealism: Plato
Theory of Ideas

ØIn the perceptual world, the objects we see around

us bear only a dim resemblance to the ultimately
real forms of Plato's intelligible world.

ØPlato argued that people uneducated in the

forms would mistake the shadows on the wall
for the real thing. Put another way we could
say that they would mistake the phenomena
with the real thing itself.
Allegory of the Cave
In the cave, the prisoners believe
the shadows to be real because
that is their experience. Socrates
and Plato taught that experience
is insufficient for real knowledge
and truth: we must use reason
too. Plato believed that all were
born with an innate knowledge of
these ‘forms’.
Watch the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=1RWOpQXTltA
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley

Recap: Subjective Idealist

Idealist because he believed reality consists of ideas or
minds or spirits; subjective because these ideas reside in
a subject, not in an objective world as is believed by
Plato, who was an objective idealist.

Berkeley, an Irishman and a Bishop, is an Idealist.

His famous book The Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
and The Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713).
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley

Berkeley, the things immediately perceived are the

real things, and what we immediately perceive are
ideas, not material entities.

Please note, John Locke, one of the contemporary

of Berkeley, thinks all of these ideas are the effects,
while some are the resemblances, of material
entities which cannot be perceived by human minds
and are real things.
However, they Both agree that immediate
objects of perception are ideas exist in
mind.
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley

Berkeley, the things immediately perceived are the

real things, and what we immediately perceive are
ideas, not material entities.

Please note, John Locke, one of the contemporary

of Berkeley, thinks all of these ideas are the effects,
while some are the resemblances, of material
entities which cannot be perceived by human minds
and are real things.
However, they Both agree that immediate
objects of perception are ideas exist in
mind.
 Locke on Primary and Secondary Qualities

• Berkeley advances his philosophy after rejecting Locke’s distinction

between primary and secondary qualities. For Locke:
• (a) Primary qualities of bodies (objects) are those qualities that are
“utterly inseparable from the body in what state so ever it be.” A primary
quality is really present in the body (object) and supplies a likeness of
itself to the mind. Whether or not the mind actually perceives the quality,
it is really present in the thing. Primary qualities are solidity, shape,
motion, and rest.
• (b) Secondary qualities “in truth are nothing in the objects themselves
but powers to produce the various sensations in us by their primary
qualities.” Colours, sounds, tastes, smells, touch sensations are all “ideas
of secondary qualities” produced in us by “the operation of insensible
particles on our senses.”
• Primary qualities are objective while secondary qualities are subjective.
Primary qualities resemble the object while secondary qualities do not
resemble it. Thus, whereas our idea of figure, for example, resembles or
represents the object itself that causes the idea in us (the object really has
figure), our idea of, say, red, does not resemble the rose considered in
itself.
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley
Berkeley’s Arguments against Locke’s materialism
(a) Argument from the relativity of all sensible qualities
(or the argument from variation): The argument begins
by showing that since the secondary qualities vary in
relation to the perceiver they cannot be in external
objects. Then it proceeds to show that similar
considerations apply to the primary qualities. Berkeley
agrees with Locke that secondary qualities have subjective
status only and do not exist independently of perception.
But, Berkeley continues, if secondary qualities are
subjective because they are relative (vary from person to
person), primary qualities are also subjective like the
secondary qualities. If it is a good argument that neither
heat nor cold is in water because it seems warm to one
hand and cold to the other, then it is equally a good
argument that there is no extension or figure in an object,
say, in a tower, because seen from nearby the tower
appears large and square-cornered, while seen from afar it
looks small and round.
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley
Berkeley’s Arguments against Locke’s materialism

(b) Argument from the impossibility of abstracting certain

qualities from others (or the argument from
inconceivability): This argument purports to show that the
primary and secondary qualities are united and in the mind,
because it is impossible to abstract, e.g., extension or motion
from colour, either in perception or in imagination.
The argument from inconceivability runs as follows: (i)
whatever possible is conceivable; (ii) what is conceivable is
what we can form an idea of; (iii) we cannot form an idea of
an extended object without providing it, in our imagination,
with some secondary qualities. How do we know that an
object occupies space without seeing a colour patch, or
touching something?
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley
Berkeley’s Arguments against Locke’s
materialism

— If both primary and secondary qualities are

relative to perception – if neither has
independent or absolute existence in itself
– then all the qualities of the physical
objects are relative to the perceiving mind.
No qualities or ideas can exist without the
mind; things are collection of ideas or
sensible qualities.
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley
Esse est percipi: To Exist is to be Perceived

Esse est percipi – for a thing to be, it must be perceived.

To say “table exists” is to say that the table is perceived or
perceivable. “The table I write on I say exists, that is, I see
and feel it; and if I were out of my study, I should say it
existed, meaning thereby that if I was in my study I might
perceive it, or that some other spirit actually does
perceive it.” Thus to say things exist when no mind
perceives them is perfectly unintelligible. Hence, to exist
means to be perceived, to be in some mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZmz9nkqBt4&t=10
2s
Subjective Idealism: George Berkeley

• Reality is a system of minds or spirits. There are minds

other than my own - other perceivers in whose
collective consciousness the external world exists.

• Above all, there is a Supreme or Divine Mind, which is

the Cause, distinct from myself, of the mighty complex
of ideas, which is the sensible world. God produces
sensations in us without need of matter or physical
world. Our perceptions derive their order and
coherence from the nature and operations of the
Divine Mind.
 Nature of Reality: Materialism

Recap:
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter
is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including
mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of
material things.

“Modern materialism holds that the universe is an unlimited material

entity; that the universe, including all matter and energy (motion or
force), has always existed, and will always exist; that the world is hard,
tangible, material, objective reality that man can know. It holds that
matter existed before mind; that the material world is primary and that
thoughts about this world is secondary.” (Charles S. Seely, Modern
Materialism: A Philosophy of Action)
 Nature of Reality: Materialism

Characteristics of Materialism:

(a) Matter is primary and consciousness is secondary, a derivative of

matter.
(b) Matter is eternal – no one has ever created it.
(c) There are no supernatural forces in the world..
(d) Consciousness is the product of the historical development of
matter, the human brain.
(e) The world is knowable
 Nature of Reality: Materialism

Characteristics of Materialism:

(a) Matter is primary and consciousness is secondary, a derivative of

matter.
(b) Matter is eternal – no one has ever created it.
(c) There are no supernatural forces in the world..
(d) Consciousness is the product of the historical development of
matter, the human brain.
(e) The world is knowable
 Nature of Reality: Materialism
Early Greek Materialists
• Thales of Miletus (about 640 BCE,) who is generally regarded as the father
of western philosophy, was the first materialist. He declared water to be
the basis of all things. Next came Anaximander of Miletus (about 611-547
BCE), the first writer on philosophy. He assumed as the first principle an
undefined, unlimited substance itself without qualities, out of which the
primary opposites, hot and cold, moist and dry, became differentiated. His
countryman and younger contemporary, Anaximenes, took for his principle
air, conceiving it as modified, by thickening and thinning, into fire, wind,
clouds, water, and earth.
• Heraclitus of Ephesus (about 535-475 BCE) assumed as the principle of
substance fire. From fire all things originate, and return to it again by a
never-resting process of development. All things, therefore, are in a
perpetual flux. Empedocles of Agrigentum (born 492 BCE) supposes a
plurality of substances – i.e., the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire.
The first explicitly materialistic system was formed by Leucippus (fifth
century BCE) and his pupil Democritus of Abdera (born about 460 BCE).
They are also known as Greek Atomists for their doctrine of atoms --
literally 'uncuttables' -- small primary bodies infinite in number, indivisible
and imperishable, qualitatively similar, but distinguished by their shapes.
 Nature of Reality: Materialism
Mechanical Materialism

Ø The doctrine that the world is governed by natural laws that may be
stated in mathematical terms when the necessary data are available.

Ø All changes in the world, from those involving the atom to those
involving man, are strictly determined. There is a complete and closed
causal series. This causal series is to be explained by the principles of
natural sciences alone, and not with resort to such notions as “purpose.”

Ø Mind and consciousness are forms of behaviour – muscular, neural, or

glandular behaviour. Thomas Hobbes explained conscious life as
sensations that are movements in the brain and nervous system.
Materialism : Dialectical Materialism

• “The philosophers have only interpreted the world;

the point, however, is to change it.” (Karl Marx, 1818-
1883)
• Major works: A Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
(1843), The Communist Manifesto (1848), and Das
Kapital (1867).
• Marxism has three roots: French revolutions of
1790’s, English capitalist economics, and German
philosophy. Marx belonged to Hegelian left along with
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72), a materialist.
• The study of Marxism falls under three main headings,
corresponding broadly to philosophy, social history
and economics - Dialectical Materialism, Historical
Materialism and Marxist Economics.
Materialism : Dialectical Materialism

Karl Marx was a German-born philosopher, economist,

political theorist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and
revolutionary socialist. Friedrich Engels was a German
philosopher, political theorist, historian, journalist, and
revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman and
Karl Marx's closest friend and collaborator.

The study of Marxism falls under three main headings,

corresponding broadly to philosophy, social history and
economics - Dialectical Materialism, Historical
Materialism and Marxist Economics.
Materialism : Dialectical Materialism

• There is only one material world - no Heaven or Hell.

• The universe, which has always existed (eternal as
Aristotle said) and is not the creation of any supernatural
being, is in the process of constant flux. Human beings
are a part of nature, and evolved from lower forms of life,
whose origins sprung from a lifeless planet some 3.6
billion or so years ago. Human thought and consciousness
are the result of evolution – they are the product of
brain, a matter.
§ "Life is not determined by consciousness, but
consciousness by life.” (Marx) No mind or consciousness
without matter. Matter is not a product of mind, but
mind itself is the highest product of matter.
Materialism : Dialectical Materialism
History
• Dialectics comes from the Greek dialego, to discourse, to
debate. In ancient times (as found in Socrates and Plato)
dialectics was the art of arriving at the truth by disclosing
the contradictions in the argument of an opponent and
overcoming these contradictions. Philosophers in ancient
times believed that the disclosure of contradictions in
thought and the clash of opposite opinions was the best
method of arriving at the truth.
• Later on this dialectical method is applied to the
phenomena of nature - nature is seen as being in constant
movement and undergoing constant change, and the
development of nature is the result of the development
of the contradictions in nature, as the result of the
interaction of opposed forces in nature. This concept is
developed by Kant, Hegel and Marx.
Materialism : Dialectical Materialism

Marx and Engels asserted the primacy of the material world: in short, matter
precedes thought. Thus, there is no God who conceived the world, but
rather humans, who are essentially material beings, conceived God. In
addition, there is no spiritual world, heaven, or hell, beyond the material
world.

All phenomena in the universe consist of "matter in motion." All things are
interconnected and develop in accordance with natural law. The physical
world is an objective reality and exists independently of our perception of it.
Perception is thus a reflection of the material world in the brain, and the
world is truly knowable, when objectively perceived.

The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human
mind, and translated into forms of thought (Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Vol. 1).

Examples: Being (thesis), Nothing (antithesis),

Becoming (synthesis).
Materialism : Hegel’s Dialectical
Method

All logic (and, hence, all of reality) is dialectical in character.

We find dialectical thinking in Kant - serious thought about
one general description of the world commonly leads us into
a contemplation of its opposite (Antinomies). But Hegel
adds: the two concepts so held in opposition can always be
united by a shift to some higher level of thought. Thus, the
human mind invariably moves from thesis to antithesis to
synthesis, employing each synthesis as the thesis for a new
opposition to be transcended by yet a higher level,
continuing in a perpetual waltz of intellectual achievement.

Examples: Idea (thesis), Nature (antithesis), Spirit or

Absolute (synthesis)
 Conclusion
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy which studies the
ultimate principle or the basic stuff of things, that
examines the true nature of reality, whether visible or
invisible.
The question of the ultimate being or reality has two
complementary aspects: (i) the nature or kind of
the ultimate stuff or about (ii) its number.
When it comes to the question about the nature or kind
of ultimate stuff, the answer is given by two metaphysical
theories of : (i)Materialism, (ii) Idealism
When it is about number, four theories are usually
mentioned:
(i) Monism (ii) Dualism (iii)Pluralism (vi) Nihilism