Science, Metaphysics, and the Nature of Reality
Science and Reality
In the early twenty-first century, science has generally accepted an image of what we call reality. But the discoveries and achievements of science open the door to ever more complex puzzles. In antiquity, everything we call knowledge was attributed to philosophy, considered the ultimate form of rational knowledge. But scientific knowledge led many to follow an independent path from philosophy. This knowledge became specialized sciences, and the sum of all of them gives a comprehensive picture of the world around us. However, there are issues common to all sciences. What is the origin of things? Is there a difference between being and existence? What is reality? All are questions that are beyond science.
What Is There?: The Question of Reality
Two questions arise:
- Heidegger wondered, why is there something and not rather nothing? There are things that mean something.
- What are the features of what is there?
The Reality of the External World
- Common sense realism: there is a real world outside ourselves that is perceived by the senses and analyzed by science. It is the most common and widespread view.
- Skepticism: our senses do not provide a reliable picture of the external world; they often deceive us and make us see or hear things that are not real. It is therefore necessary to doubt the information provided to us by way of the outside world.
- Idealism: when we analyze the real world, we only have our ideas about that world. Therefore, there is only the universe of our minds and our perceptions. There are only our ideas of the outside world.
- Phenomenalism: it is not possible to give an overall picture of the world. The real world is just the set of sensory phenomena and perceptions that it can have (flashes).
Metaphysics as First Philosophy
Metaphysics is the more abstract and general branch of philosophy that deals with the study of the features of reality, and raises issues that are beyond science and the physical. Aristotle warned that beyond the problems posed by the study of natural phenomena, it was necessary to analyze the common aspects of all reality. The object of first philosophy was the study of the fundamental principles of reality and of all that exists.
The Classical Metaphysics
Classical metaphysics was characterized by a high level of abstraction; the features of reality were beyond and transcended the specifics of individual beings. It was a knowledge of a transcendental type. It used complex concepts such as essence and existence, substance and accidents, attributes and properties. But the advance of experimental science and the contributions of Newton’s physics limited the explanatory pretensions of metaphysics, whose problems appeared to be meaningless issues.
The Metaphysical Attitude and Features
- It is intended to analyze the first principles of reality, those from which all others derive.
- It is radical in nature, analyzing the root of reality and seeking what constitutes the being of concrete things.
- It has a claim for all: not content with partial solutions or with a limited specialty. It wants to analyze all of reality to find its meaning.
- It considers human reality a fundamental reference: the human being seeks to understand himself, that is, seeks to make sense of their reality and existence.
The great philosophical systems and interpretation of reality. Some systems support a single principle of reality: they are monistic. Others believe that the core of reality is composed of several elements: they are pluralistic. All seek to develop an overview of reality and the world; they are true worldviews.
Plato: The Reality of Ideas
In the fourth century BC, Plato proposed one of the most important metaphysical systems. His thinking takes into account the thoughts of earlier philosophers, oriental philosophy, and especially mathematics. Plato is a dualist; he thinks that there are two different types of reality. First, the material reality that the senses show us, and which is subject to change. On the other hand, the reality of the objects of reason and mathematics, which never change. According to Plato, true reality is in the world of ideas. Ideas are abstract forms, eternal and immutable. These include a gradient that culminates in the idea of goodness. The material realities of our sensory experience are mere copies of ideas. So, to know one actually amounts to knowing that reality is a copy. And true knowledge is knowledge of ideas.
Aristotle: The Substance of Individual Beings
Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, and he undertook a comprehensive synthesis of the knowledge of his time. His work exerted a tremendous influence, especially in the Middle Ages. For Aristotle, the essential reality is the substance. The question of the being of reality leads to the question about the substance of each thing. That something has a substance is supposed to say that something has a specific nature that is the cause of motion and evolution. This involves accepting the reality of particular things that are in sensory experience, unlike what Plato thought. Aristotle introduces the concepts of act (which is really) and power (which can be). Aristotle distinguishes several types of substances and postulates the existence of a substance that is higher than the reference of all changes and movements: the motionless, eternal engine, the cause of the movement, and who is away from the world.
The ancient atomism: the material reality principle Leucippus and Democritus (V century BC). The principle of reality is the atoms, which are material. His was the first metaphysical system of material nature. According to the atomists, the real is made up of individual material particles called atoms. The atoms are distinguished only by their form, their location, and the relationships they establish with each other. The atoms move and collide, and their motion is governed by a blind law, which is not explained by a reality outside the material world. All reality, from knowledge to the soul, is explained by the movement of atoms and their combinations.
Thomas Aquinas: God and His Creatures is the most important philosopher of the Western Christian Middle Ages. His work combines the principles of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian faith. The essential principles from which Thomas Aquinas explains reality are two: the need to postulate the existence of a creator God and the need to combine Christian faith and reason so that an explanation of reality consistent with the requirements of Christian revelation could be offered. To explain the differences between God and creatures, he raises the difference between essence and existence: 1. All beings have an essence, but need not exist. God is the one whose existence is a characteristic of his own essence. So, he has to exist necessarily. 2. He is the only necessary being; all the others are contingent.
Hegel: The Great Idealist System. Spirit, Reason, and Reality In the early nineteenth century, Hegel developed an elaborate metaphysical system. Hegel was a response to new historical demands represented by the triumph of the French Revolution and the rise of bourgeois society. There are two essential concepts: Reason: all that is real must also be rational. The spirit is the same humanity that thinks and acts throughout human history. Reason is the most outstanding feature of the spirit. When reason triumphs, nothing that is real is strange. Hegel extended his principles to all areas of knowledge and human action, history, and nature. It was the last great system of metaphysics of modernity.
The critique of Kant’s major systems: the illusions of reason, Kant sought to analyze the limits of reason and study what the basis of rational knowledge is. To do so, he asserted that all knowledge should be a combination of data from experience and knowledge categories. Metaphysics is not based on facts of experience. It is guided by reason alone, without empirical content. So, there is no progress, and knowledge is illusory: the great ideas of metaphysics are illusions of reason. Kant thought that the great metaphysical illusions are valid as guides to human action.
Marx, Matter, Work, and Society, Marx saw the need to think about the new society that emerged from the Industrial Revolution, and his revision of Hegel’s idealism led to a critique of the emerging capitalist society. Marx believed that the fundamental reality is not reason nor conscience, but matter. The core of Marx’s critique are three: 1. Only matter exists. 2. This is transformed by human labor. 3. Human relationships have certain historical developments. Material reality and the forces of nature are the basis of reality. The transformation of nature by man throughout history has different modes of production: slavery, feudalism, and capitalism.
Nietzsche’s Life and Thought Will developed a highly original and brilliant critique of the contributions of Western metaphysics. He considers that metaphysics has claimed a world safe from the real and apparent world full of imperfections. The history of the metaphysical institute is, in fact, the story of a huge mistake in which life is underestimated and the senses are ignored. It is necessary to embrace life, which is always uncertainty and trial, against any security. This world of life cannot be known by moral codes or by abstract concepts. Knowing the world means defending the life instinct. A new type of person emerges, named Superman, who recognizes the value of life and the strength of their own volition.
Positivism: Namely, Metaphysics as Baseless Comte was fascinated by the excellence of the nineteenth-century industrial civilization. He raised the need for sociology as a science that would account for the new situation and should replace metaphysics, as it is not valid because of the observation and the positive. In the twentieth century, the Vienna Circle again criticized metaphysics, and the only reality was the one that showed acceptable physics.
Wittgenstein: Language Analysis Argues that philosophy should be reduced to the analysis of language. And that language is the fundamental reality of man, and we can only address what we can speak with a meaningful language. Philosophy is an activity that involves the analysis and the logical clarification of thoughts. Whenever there is a philosophical problem, it is because something is wrong in language. Philosophy is to clarify the language to express the problems adequately. In fact, the only way to turn it into analysis is the metaphysics of language.
The Twentieth Century: Post-Metaphysical Century As Habermas has argued, our time is a post-metaphysical time. We keep thinking about some problems, accepting the criticism of the exaggerated claims of reason. Heidegger, Ortega, Derrida, and Levinas.