Metaphysics: A Deep Dive into the Nature of Reality
Metaphysics
Serious and Necessary Contingents
Serious Contingent
A serious contingent exists and cannot imply existence. Existence implies power.
Necessary Contingent
A necessary contingent does not exist and cannot imply existence. Existence implies pure act.
Spirit
A spirit is a non-material being. Every human, in addition to their physical, material body, has an immaterial spirit. The spirit is neither a body nor a state, therefore, it does not disappear with death. The spirit subsists with God as a pure being.
The Transcendentals of Being
Every being has several properties or aspects.
The Unit
Each entity is one and indivisible. The more perfect a reality is, the more unity it has. Spiritual realities are “more one” than material realities.
The Truth
Entities are true in that they are knowable by intelligence.
The Good
Everything is good, as it has, according to its nature, some degree of perfection. Therefore, goodness is absolute. Our will is directed towards things that are good, that is, because they have some perfection.
The Proof of the Existence of God
Knowledge of God is not apparent to us; the way to prove His existence is from the object of our own intelligence. The best-known tests are the “Five Ways” of Thomas Aquinas.
- Baseline: Based on the observable.
- The principle of causality.
- No possibility of an infinite series of causes.
- Arrival at a first cause: GOD.
1st Way
Motion: Everything that moves is moved by another. A second thing, incapable of moving itself, implies a first unmoved mover.
2nd Way
Efficient causality: Everything has an efficient cause. The impossibility of an infinite series of causes implies a first uncaused cause.
3rd Way
Contingent beings: Contingent beings must have a cause that is necessary. The impossibility of an infinite series of contingent beings implies a necessary being.
4th Way
Degrees of perfection: If there are degrees of perfection, there must be a maximum perfection of existence. Secondary causes fail in their perfection, therefore, there must be a perfect being.
5th Way
Order and purpose of the universe: All beings are subject to an order and purpose in their properties. Secondary causes fail to explain where the order and perfection come from, therefore, there must be an intelligent being.
The Denial of the Existence of God
Agnosticism
As Kant notes, our knowledge is phenomenal; it only reaches the sensible appearance of things, but not reality. We do not know anything that lies beyond impressions. For this current, we cannot know anything about the world, ourselves, or if there is a God. Agnosticism itself is not the denial of the existence of God, but the affirmation that it is not possible to theoretically demonstrate His existence. Kant proposed the soul, the world, and God as postulates.
Atheism
Atheism is the negation of the existence of a personal, free, and intelligent God who governs the world. In the 19th century, two great thinkers stand out whose system is based on atheism: Karl Marx and Frederick Nietzsche. They denied the existence of God because it limits human autonomy and freedom.
Philosophical Doctrines
Skepticism
Skepticism states that we cannot know anything for certain and that it is better not to make judgments.
Ancient Skepticism
(Gorgias) If these are not the impossibility of knowing, then it is the reasonable ethical attitude to abstain from making any judgments until perfect indifference is achieved.
Practical Skepticism
(Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus) Denies the existence of an objective meaning of life for humanity. As a consequence, it denies any moral or rational principle that can guide our actions.
Voluntarism
(Nietzsche) Argues that the ultimate foundation of knowledge is the will. Nietzsche said that truth is what the strongest feel. The importance of knowledge does not lie in helping us know, but in contributing to ensuring our will dominates everything around us.
Pragmatism
(J. Bentham, J. Mill, J. Dewey) Argues that the foundation of knowledge is not the explanation of reality, but rather what validates a theory is its usefulness.
Empiricism
(J. Locke, D. Hume) Supports the validity and objectivity of scientific knowledge, but claims that its foundation is not a universal, necessary, and evident principle, but only experience, which is particular and probable.
Transcendental Idealism
(Kant) States that “the soul,” “God,” and “the world” are ideas that cannot be extracted from our empirical observation, because we do not see our soul… but without these ideas, we could not find meaning in human life. Irrationalists criticized this, while Kant affirmed the validity and objectivity of scientific knowledge.
Since the end of the 19th century, three main currents have predominated:
- Irrationalism: Denies the existence of objective truth (denies metaphysics).
- Enlightenment: Heir to Kant, values the truth of science for its usefulness.
- Metaphysical Realism: Maintains the existence of objective truths.
First Principles
These are the object of study of metaphysics:
Principle of Non-Contradiction
Something cannot be and not be at the same time. It is evident because there is no possibility that it can be fulfilled without being different from its opposite. It is necessary because if something had to be fulfilled, it would have to be different, and thus fulfill the principle of non-contradiction. It is universal because to be outside its application, there would have to be a new principle that would contradict it.
Other Principles
- Principle of Identity: Each entity, as it is, is identical to itself.
- Principle of Excluded Middle: There is no middle ground between being and not being; everything can be affirmed or denied.
- Principle of Causation: Everything that exists has a cause. If something exists, it is because something else caused it.
Categories of the Subject
Reality
Something that can be attributed to a subject in a certain way and not in the opposite way (subject).
Substance and Accidents
Substances are the most universal genera that can qualify a subject. There cannot be a being that does not qualify in any of them. Aristotle called these categories. Substances are a way of being “in itself” in a subject that does not exist in another. Accidents are ways of being that are not substances. Another classification of substance is that which is elaborated by Kant, for whom categories are only concepts of understanding, and for Aristotle, they are ways of being.
Nature
The very principle of each substance that determines its specific way of acting.
The Change of Reality
All beings have the capacity to acquire new properties and also to lose them. Heraclitus of Ephesus said that everything changes. Parmenides said that change can only consist in the passage from being to being, and since not being is impossible, movement is only an appearance. Aristotle warned that changing realities have a determined way of being in the present, but they also have the ability to be in other ways and to achieve other perfections. The first way in which subjects have perfections is in act and potency.
- Potency: The real capacity of a being to acquire a perfection.
- Act: A concrete potency or ability.
A subject changes because it acquires a perfection that it had in potency. There are two types of change:
- Substantial change: A substance becomes another different substance.
- Accidental change: Even remaining the same substance, some of its properties or accidents change.
The Ultimate Foundation of Reality: Being
Being in Itself
Being in itself is the first thing and the particular way of being of substances. Being in itself is different from being more. Being more is perfection in the full sense, because it is the ultimate foundation of reality.
Grades of Being
These are grades of perfection. Each entity has greater or lesser participation in the fullness of being. We can consider the following:
Being in Itself of Material Entities
Material entities exist in a variety of ways that are different from each other. In addition to being, they can pass it on to another thing. In material entities, matter and form are distinguished. Matter allows it to vary its state and form allows for its transformation. Matter is the result of a potential and indeterminate principle, and form is an actual and determined principle.