METAPHYSICS
PHIL 201 – Introduction to
Philosophy
Nicole Zeger
What is Metaphysics?
• The study of the most
fundamental principles of
the nature of things.
• Comprehensive view of the
universe.
• Considers the nature of
Reality.
• Cosmology – how ‘real’
things have come into being
• Ontology – the study of
‘what is’ or ‘being’.
What is truly Real?
• Materialism
• Physical objects are all that exist
• Idealism
• Mind or Spirit are all that exist
• Dualism
•
•
•
•
Also known as the ‘Mind-Body Theory’
Two different kinds of things exist: Mind and Body
Cannot be reduced into each other – completely separate
How do they communicate with each other?
Three Theories
Mind Dualism
Body
(Idealism)
(Materialism)
Early Metaphysics - Materialism
• Thales
• Water is the ultimate reality
• It exists in all things
• Also argued that magnets have souls?
• Anaximander
• Everything made of apeiron (basic
‘stuff’)
• Cannot see apeiron, can only know it
through its manifestations
• Anaximenes
• Everything made up of air
• Heraclitus
• Everything made up of fire
• It is all-consuming and always
changing
• Democritus
• Everything made of Atoms
Early Metaphysics – Ancient Immaterialism
• Immaterialism later known as
Idealism
• Pythagoras
• Ultimate reality is numbers
• Parmenides
• Our everyday world is unreal
• Reality is unchanging and unknown
to us
• Heraclitus
• Reality is change, but with unifying
Logos
Plato
• Forms
• World of Becoming
• World of Being
• Tried to reconcile Materialism
and Immaterialism
• Allegory of the Cave
Image:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/un
certainty-for-mere-mortals/
Aristotle
• Term ‘Metaphysics’ came from Aristotle
• He didn’t use it – it was derived from an
early description of his set of essays, titled
“First Philosophy”.
• “First Philosophy” came after ‘Physics’ in an
edition of his works – hence “Meta-Physics”.
• Rejected Plato’s Forms
• Everyday reality is Reality
• Difference between Reality and
Appearances
• Substances are Ultimate Reality – the
building blocks of all things
• Forms of things are in the things
themselves.
• We may be familiar with a thing but that
does not mean we completely understand it.
• We know people, but we may not know what it
means to be human.
Image: http://msbarruseng9.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/platos-allegory-of-the-cave/
Idealism
• Only the mind (or spirit) is
real or
• What is real is dependent on
the mind
• Bodies are a collection of
ideas
• The only things we can know
are those that we have
experienced
• We know through
experience (which is mind,
not body)
Image: http://www.forgetthebox.net/mag/flag-day-reflections.php
• Subjective Idealism
Berkeley
Image: http://www.unc.edu/~megw/TheoriesofPerception.html
• “To be is to be perceived”
• An empiricist in terms of
epistemology
• We only know things in
relationship to our experiences
• We know there is a ‘Mind’ because
an ‘Idea’ presupposes a Mind
• No world outside our knowledge
(or God’s knowledge)
Kant, Schopenhauer, and Hegel
THE GERMAN
IDEALISTS
Kant
• Everything we know is based on
experience
• Reality is organized through
Categories
• We cannot understand our
experience outside our mental
categories
• Categories based on universal
principles (so we can communicate
with each other)
• Categories are rational
• World of Nature and World of
Action/Belief are both rational
Image:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=1924401&imageID=ps_prn_cd23_330&total=1&e=w&k=0&print=small
Schopenhauer
• Agreed with Kant that there
are two worlds and
• We can only know through
experience
• But, argued that both
realms/worlds were
IRRATIONAL
• The Will in us was all that is
real
• Will is a violent force operating
outside of us
• Goal is to escape from the
• power of the Will
Image: http://www.schopenhauer.net/
Hegel
Image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_idealism
• Only Spirit is real
• Focused on spirit instead of
mind, experience or will
• Still Idealism, as the Spirit is not
material
• Spirit
• Cosmic, universal Mind
• Full of constant internal conflict
• Almost a cosmic consciousness
• Always trying to understand itself
• Teleological
• Always moving
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz
DUALISM
Descartes
Image: http://www.artnetherlands.com/artgallery.htm
• Sometimes considered a pluralist
• Mind and Body both exist as
substances
• They are distinct substances and
therefore
• They cannot communicate with
one another
• Also considered God a separate
substance from Mind and Body
• Never solved the problem of
interaction between the
substances of Mind and Body
Can Dualism work?
• Descartes offered a more
pragmatic understanding – that
both mind and body are real
• Interaction – only remaining
options:
1. Mind and Body are not two
different substances; they are
parts of the same substance
(Spinoza)
2. Mind and body are separate
substances, but they do not
interact (Leibniz)
Image: http://paradigm-shift-21st-century.nl/the-mind-body-problem.html
Spinoza
• Mind and body are different aspects of
the same substance
• “Attributes”
• Monism
• Only one substance in the universe
• God is the only substance
• We are all one – part of the same substance
• No individuality; no freedom
• We are all part of God
• In many ways, not a Dualist
• But not an idealist or materialist either
• Mind and body are both real (dualism)
• Part of a single unity (monism)
• Many things are real, as they are all part of God
(pluralism)
Image: http://ha-historion.blogspot.com/2009/12/curious-case-of-benedict-spinoza.html
Leibniz
• Pluralist – there are many substances
(monads, not physical substances)
• Substances cannot interact
• Monads
• Simple substance, like a mind
• Do not interact
• They only appear to do these things
• We do not see each other or the world as it is
• We only perceive reality – pre-established
harmony set up by God
• Not really a dualist either
Image: http://en.nkfu.com/gottfried-leibniz-quotes/
• Not a materialist or an idealist – although closer to
idealism
References
Solomon, R.C. & Higgins, K.M. (2010). The Big Questions: A short
introduction to philosophy (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning. Retrieved from https://mycampus.aiuonline.com/pages/MainFrame.aspx?ContentFrame=/Home/Pages/
Default.aspx.
Wolff, R. P. (2012). About Philosophy (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson.
Images
• http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/uncertainty-for-meremortals/
• http://msbarruseng9.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/platos-allegory-ofthe
• -cave
• http://www.forgetthebox.net/mag/flag-day-reflections.php
• http://www.unc.edu/~megw/TheoriesofPerception.html
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg
=1&strucID=1924401&imageID=ps_prn_cd23_330&total=1&e=w&k
=0&print=small
• http://www.schopenhauer.net
Images (cont.)
•
•
•
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_idealism
http://www.artnetherlands.com/artgallery.htm
http://paradigm-shift-21st-century.nl/the-mind-body-problem.html
http://ha-historion.blogspot.com/2009/12/curious-case-ofbenedict-spinoza.html
• http://en.nkfu.com/gottfried-leibniz-quotes/