Metaphysics…an Introduction

Some Guiding Questions:What is Reality?

What is a personal identity?

Is there a Supreme Being?

What is the meaning of life?

What is Reality?Brainstorm 5-10 points

What is a personal identity?

Brainstorm 5-10 ideas:

Is there a Supreme Being?

Yes/No? How do we know?Brainstorm 5-10 ideas: QuickTime™ and a

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What is the meaning of life?Brainstorm 5-10 ideas:

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

And on a deeper level…

How is reality structured?

What is freedom?

What is the relationship between mind and body?

What is the difference between being and nothingness?

Before we can ‘answer’ these questions, we need to review key terms, ideas

and theories.

And remember…

The Importance of Reason.

For the most part, philosophers interested in metaphysics don’t trust information gathered by the senses

They tend to rely on an ‘a priori’ approach to ‘answer’ the big questions, focusing on reasoning rather than on sensory information

Theory #1: MATERIALISM

Reality ultimately consists of matter

Matter can be atoms or energy force fields, or anything that is not mind-like, intelligent or conscious

Materialists argue that thoughts, mind, intelligence and self (etc.) are just complex material phenomena

(Think pre-Socratic thinkers)

Theory #2: (Platonic) REALISM

reality consists of ideal forms or ideas that are timeless

Ideal forms are unchanging, immaterial and MORE perfect than what we can

experience using our senses

(think the Allegory of the

Cave)

Theory #3: Idealism

Denies the existence of material things

Reality consists of ideas and the minds that house them

“The empirical world does not

exist independently of the human mind and hence can only be known according to our conceptions of it. Its opposite is materialism.”

(George Berkeley)

Idealism, continued…

Reality is mental, intelligent or thought-like

One, all-encompassing absolute mind of which your own mind is a part

Physical objects are manifestations of minds or intelligences rather than material things independent of mind

There are many versions of idealism, but all agree that mind is reality

Theory #4: MONISM

Reality is ultimately one unified, all-encompassing thing (mind or matter)

All particular things are transient manifestations, modifications or expressions of this ONE thing

Spinoza was a famous monist

2 Interpretations of Monism

Materialists’ Monism

The ONE thing is entirely MATERIAL

Idealists’ Monism

The ONE thing is entirely MENTAL

and contrary to MONISM is…

DUALISM

Theory #5: DUALISM

Reality consists of TWO fundamentally different kinds of things:

MINDS AND MATTER

(mental states) (physical states)

Dualism continued…There are various kinds of dualism

Rene Descartes is a substance dualistArgued that reality consists of 2

fundamentally different kinds of substances: THINKING THINGS (minds) and THINGS THAT TAKE UP SPACE

These substances causally interact

While metaphysical theories differ, two key concepts are often

debated…SUBSTANCESomething that

has an independent existence

The basic element of which things are made and may be either mental or material

ESSENCEThe fundamental

nature of a thing, its unchanging blueprint, the thing that makes it what it is