Metaphysics: Understanding Reality & Existence
What is Metaphysics?
Understanding Reality
The current understanding of reality is incomplete and raises new questions. Science cannot resolve all issues, especially fundamental questions like “What is reality?”
There are different ways to understand reality. Material things, feelings, hopes, and desires are all considered real.
Philosophical Positions on External Reality
- Realism of Common Sense: A real world exists outside of ourselves, perceived by the senses and analyzed by science. This is the most common position, but our senses can be unreliable.
- Idealism: When we analyze the real world, we only have our ideas about it. Therefore, only our “ideas” of the external world exist.
- Phenomenalism: It is impossible to provide a general picture of the world. The real world consists of phenomena, which are our sensory perceptions.
Classical Metaphysics
Aristotle used “first philosophy” to refer to the study of the first principles and causes of reality. Classical metaphysics was identified with philosophy and science and had these characteristics:
- Abstract Knowledge: It sought common elements of reality and adopted a general point of view.
- Rational and Informed Knowledge: It was based on two basic logical principles: the principle of non-contradiction and the principle of the excluded middle.
The Metaphysical Attitude and Its Features
- Knowledge of Principles: It analyzes the first principles of reality.
- Radical Character: It analyzes reality to find what constitutes the being of concrete things.
- Claim to Totality: It seeks to overcome differences between particular things and provide a complete understanding.
- Worldview: Many metaphysical conceptions result in a specific worldview that explains what is considered real.
- Human Reality as a Fundamental Reference: All problems are referred to the universe of human beings. In understanding reality, humans seek to understand themselves and their existence.
Philosophers on Reality and Existence
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas explained reality based on two principles: the existence of a creator God and the need to unite Christian faith and reason. He highlighted the distance between God and creatures based on the difference between essence and existence. All beings have essence but not all need to exist. Only God’s essence includes existence, making his existence necessary. The existence of particular things comes from God’s creative action.
Hegel
Hegel’s metaphysics revolves around reason (the supreme value of reality) and spirit (the subject where reason is the most important feature). Spirit has objective and subjective aspects, particular and universal. It is the force driving humanity throughout history.
Kant
Influenced by science and physics, Kant criticized metaphysical reason. He argued that reason not based on experience leads to illusory knowledge. He concluded that all knowledge is a mixture of experience and data from the forms or categories of our understanding.
Marx
Marx criticized Hegel’s idealism, arguing that fundamental reality is not reason or conscience but art and nature. This led him to criticize capitalist society and analyze the relationship between humans and nature. He considered work as the essence of human beings, arguing that humans create their own nature and life through work.
Nietzsche
Nietzsche claimed that authentic life is driven by instinct, which continually creates new values. He rejected the rational and moral codes of ancient metaphysics and advocated for a new human model called the “Superman,” representing a superior, life-affirming individual.
Positivism
Positivism emphasizes that only positive developments, studied through observation, are valid. It rejects metaphysics as a science and argues that philosophy should only focus on science, admitting only assumptions verifiable through experience.
Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein’s philosophy focuses on language analysis. He believed that philosophy’s task is to analyze and clarify thoughts expressed in language. This requires clarifying language through two functions: revisionist (reviewing philosophical problems) and descriptive (setting limits on language use).
Plato
Plato’s metaphysics was dualistic, with two kinds of reality: the material world (perceived by the senses) and the immaterial world of essences. The material world is a shadow or copy of the world of ideas, and true knowledge is knowledge of these ideas.
Atomism
Atomism established atoms as the basic principle of reality.
Aristotle
Aristotle focused on substance as the essence of things. He believed that understanding reality means understanding the substance of each thing. His theory of substance includes potentiality (what can be) and actuality (what is). Different types of substances exist, including an eternal first substance (the unmoved mover), which he identified with the Christian God as the primary cause of movement and change.