Metaphysics: Definition, Types, and Parmenides
Metaphysics: Definition
Metaphysics is the study of being, encompassing all of reality. It seeks to answer questions about the origin of everything, what exists, and the ultimate end of nature.
The term “metaphysics” was coined by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century BC. While organizing Aristotle’s works, he grouped certain topics in books placed *after physics* (meta ta physika).
The definition of metaphysics as something spiritual, beyond the physical, was institutionalized in medieval times, based on the philosophy of Plato.
There are various understandings of metaphysics, particularly concerning the nature of what is transcendent.
Types of Metaphysics
1. By the Number of Elements at the Source:
- Monists: Believe there is a single principle that creates reality, however plural and diverse it may appear.
- Dualists: Believe there are two distinct and opposing substances: material and spiritual.
- Pluralists: Consider that there is a plurality of principles in nature, giving rise to a multiple and diverse reality.
2. By the Conception of Reality:
- Materialists: Explain reality in terms of matter and deny the existence of spiritual realities. They believe that the material is what we perceive through the senses and can transform into something else.
- Spiritualists: Explain reality in light of spiritual realities and consider material realities insufficient. This includes mental understanding, awareness, essence, the soul, the psyche, and their products.
3. By the Explanation of Movement:
- Static vs. Dynamic: Reality can be seen as static if it is isolated and closed in on itself. It is dynamic if it is in a relationship with things, people, and historical events, and therefore in a process of becoming.
4. By Existence:
- Necessary vs. Contingent: What is necessary is eternal (for the Greeks, this was matter; for Christians, it is God). The contingent has a beginning and an end; it may or may not exist.
The Eleatic School: Parmenides (Birth of Metaphysics, 470 BC)
Parmenides claimed there are two ways of knowing: the way of truth and the way of opinion. He articulated this in his poem, *On Being*.
a. The Way of Truth (Reason):
Only through reason can one arrive at the truth. This leads to a logical deduction:
- Logical: What is, is, and what is not, is not. (Straight and true thought). What is not, is not and cannot be. (We cannot think of what is not because it does not exist). Nothing cannot be thought; if it were thought, it would be something and not nothing. From nothing, nothing can come.
- Illogical: What is not, is, and what is, is not.
b. The Way of Opinion (Senses):
This way is misleading and deals with the appearance of things. It would suggest that both being and non-being equally exist.
c. Characteristics of Being:
- Unengendered: Being is eternal; it could not have a beginning, as nothing can arise from nothing.
- Indestructible: Being cannot be destroyed because it cannot become non-being.
- Motionless: There is no movement. Movement requires a shift from being to non-being or vice versa, which is impossible.
- One: There is unity; plurality does not exist. Plurality is a deception of the senses. If there were two beings, there would have to be nothing between them, and non-being is impossible.
- Spherical: Being is completely closed and perfect, like a sphere. Nothing is missing.
- Limited: The limitless always lacks something, and if something is missing, that something is not, and non-being does not exist.
d. Significance of Parmenides:
Parmenides contributed the concept of *being* and established the philosophical method of logical deduction in metaphysics.