...In metaphysics, there have been countless arguments to prove the existence, or absence, of certain kinds of things, such as universals. There have been several attempts find a solution to the problem of universals, an unresolved issue which revolves around the question of whether or not universals actually exist, and if so, which particular form they take. Though there are many possible solutions to this question, in modern metaphysics one of the most popular stances on the issue is Realism, which can be further boiled down into two popular schools of thought, Aristotelian realism and Platonic realism. Although both forms of realism agree that universals are actual entities, they are distinguished by their contradictory views on the independence of universals. Aristotelian realism asserts that universals exist exclusively as properties instantiated by particulars, while Platonic realism suggests that universals can exist as entities separate of their particulars. However, with regards to the problem of universals, this distinction is negligible because both forms of realism use the same essential logic to attempt to prove the existence of universals. Realism hinges upon the idea that in order for certain phrases and ideas to be true, universals must be considered distinct entities. For example, consider the statement “the sky is blue.” There is a known entity, the sky, that, in all senses of the word, can be accurately described as being blue. This much is indisputably true. But...
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...32 Russell, Science et religion : le nombrilisme métaphysique de l’homme « Pourquoi, de toute façon, cette glorification de l’Homme ? Que dire des lions et des tigres ? » [...] seule une suffisance insondable peut voir dans l'homme un mobile que l'Omniscience jugerait digne du créateur." « . Si je recevais la toute-puissance, avec des millions d’années pour expérimenter, je ne penserais pas à me vanter de l’Homme comme résultat de mes efforts. « <-> LUCRECE 72 « Et quand j'ignorerais la nature des atomes, j'oserais encore, après l'examen des phénomènes célestes et bien d'autres d'ailleurs, affirmer que la nature n'a pas été faite pour nous et qu'elle n'est pas l'oeuvre des dieux: tant l'ouvrage laisse à désirer! 36 Pascal sur la science et la religion : la nécessaire humilité de la science La raison est disqualifiée dans sa prétention à revendiquer un magistère en matière de vérité. Au contraire, elle devrait faire preuve de modestie car sans le secours du « cœur » qui lui donne ses premiers principes, elle ne pourrait même pas produire le moindre raisonnement. « il n’y a rien de si conforme à la raison que le désaveu de la raison dans les choses qui sont de foi » ? Pensée B. 272. 37 Leo Strauss, Droit naturel et histoire : science, religion et révélation Opposition science / religion : chacune refuge les présupposés indispensables de l’autre (croyance ou non originelle en la révélation) : à partir de là, aucune a pu convaincre l’autre 41 Freud. Nouvelles...
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...Metaphysics touches on two important subjects that form part of the personality of every rational being – dualism and materialism. Dualism is the claim that we have two separate distinct substances, a “mind” and a “body.” On the other hand materialism holds that there is no non-physical mind substance, instead our so called “mind” is no more than just the physical brain. I believe myself to be a materialist because I am a rational being capable to realize that my mind orders require physical intervention to be executed. This can be represented on the mind-body problem that dualist have to face. In the mind-body problem, there is an inability to explain how an immaterial mind interacts with a material body. For example physical things are moved...
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...we are now, and in losing this we lose who we are in the future. This seems to be a sickness that has plagued man not only these days but in the past as German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) recognized this occurring in front of him and in an effort to bring a remedy to the situation which he believed was caused by western philosophy’s nihilistic tendencies, so he posed the question, “why are there beings at all instead of nothing?”1 This question seemed more than appropriate as its seems we today, much as man seemed to be when the question was originally posed continue to ignore or lose our sense of being, allowing for the word to simply become muddled in with the rest of our every day vocabulary. Heidegger believed that metaphysics, or all philosophy in general, “aims at the first and last grounds of beings, and it does so in a way that human beings themselves, with respect to their way of Being are emphatically interpreted and given their aim. This readily gives the impression that philosophy can and must provide a foundation for the current and future historical Dasein of people in every age, a foundation for building culture.”2 With this...
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...While reading the book, Baboon Metaphysics, I came to the conclusion that there is more to Baboons than what meets the eye. Cheney and Seyfarth do a wonderful job on exploring the complex and mysterious world of Baboons, focusing in on their social structures, relationships, and even touching on aspects of a possible language. The authors make it clear that baboons have an understanding of bonds, ranks and social networks. I also believe that baboons have a clear and intricate understanding of social networks and hierarchical ranks because of the amount of evidence shown. To begin, I will set out to present the research presented by Cheney and Seyfarth in Baboon Metaphysics concerning baboon social bonds and networks. In the chapter five of the book, Cheney and Seyfarth observe the social bonds and rank recognition between female baboons. Like humans, baboons differ in social ranks and are exposed to different environmental stress factors. When a female baboon is faced with the loss of an infant or relative, for example, she experiences stress. Due to this stress, she forms stronger and broader bonds and social networks. Because their feelings of loneliness increases, the formation of social bonds and networks alleviates it. Humans also rely on friends and relatives greatly when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. Besides strengthening their social networks, female baboons also tend to strengthen their grooming networks when coping with the loss of a loved one. For...
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...he purpose of ethics for Aristotle is simply to find the ultimate purpose of human life, once again demonstrating his emphasis on teleology. Ethics falls under the category of practical sciences, since its concern is not knowledge for its own sake but rather for the purpose of application. Aristotle first recognizes that happiness is the ultimate good, since all other goods are intermediate while happiness is final. We pursue other goods to achieve happiness, but happiness is valuable in itself. The problem then becomes the question of how to achieve happiness. Pleasure is undeniably the motivation behind many actions, but it puts humans on the level of animals. Honor is another possibility, but it places too much emphasis on the praise of others. Aristotle concludes that the means of happiness–and hence the purpose of human existence–is virtue. Virtue involves habit and choice. By making the proper decisions, we eventually develop a virtuous habit or disposition, so that we need not run through the catalogue of options every time a moral dilemma presents itself. Rather, we act according to our disposition, which has been cultivated by past choices. The question then arises: how do we make the right choices? For Aristotle, the virtuous choice was the mean between two extremes: excess and defect. For example, between profligacy and insensibility there lies self-discipline; between obsequiousness and coldness there lies friendliness. Aristotle goes on to discuss the concept of...
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...Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of existence. Metaphysics is concerned with explaining the ways things are by trying to answer the question “What is”, “what is reality”, what is free will”. It encompasses everything that exists, as well as the nature of existence itself. Compared to other branches of Philosophy such as epistemology that deals with things like the sources of justification, knowledge, metaphysics is concerned with explaining the way things are in the physical world. This is not the origin of the term The term “Metaphysics” comes from the Greek term “meta” meaning “after the Physics”. Although the term metaphysics generally makes sense in the way that it partially refers to things outside of and beyond the natural science. Instead, the term was used by later editors of Aristotle. Aristotle had written several books on matter and physics, and followed those volumes with works on ontology and other broad subjects. These editors referred to them as “The books that came after the books on physics” or “metaphysics”. Aristotle referred to metaphysics as “first philosophy”. This term was also used by some other philosopher like Descartes whose primary work focused on the subject of metaphysics. Metaphysical systems come in three main component: Physical system such as Kant’s, ideologies which are usually political, moral or other practical philosophical systems; and other religions which in their theologies attempt to create...
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...branches of philosophy, and talk about each branch a little bit separately, and then I’ll finish off by talking about some miscellaneous branches of philosophy that are kind of an overlap of those three branches. S2: The first major branch of philosophy is the branch of metaphysics. The word metaphysics means, ‘above or beyond physics.’ It investigates questions of reality and existence. But as the word implies, it’s not just simply the existence that we see or the things that we experience with our senses, but what’s beyond those. What’s beyond this real world that we see here? Why does it work the way that it works? Why is it here? How did it get here? Those are some metaphysical areas that we deal with here. We can break metaphysics into four sub-categories here. The first sub-category is cosmological metaphysics, and this deals specifically with the origin and purpose of reality. Why does anything exist at all? That’s often been called the first philosophical question. Why does anything exist? Where did reality come from? How did it develop the way that it was? What is its purpose—why is it here? Those are all cosmological questions. A second area of metaphysics is theological metaphysics, and this deals with the reality of something beyond the natural reality that we experience: the existence of some sort of supernatural. Here it deals with questions, Does God exist? Is there only one God? What is the nature of God—what is he like? How does he relate to reality...
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...Philosophy and Psychology The links in the table on the left take you to sub-headings on this page. |. |Philosophy can mean different things | | |Sometimes philosophers deal with questions of truth and sometimes with questions of goodness ; | | |sometimes they offer consolation for life’s sorrows and sometimes they are purely pragmatic. In | | |the philosophy of science, a theory may be valued only for its predictive capability ; its truth | | |or falsity may be immaterial. In ethics, philosophy may have a prescriptive function, offering a | | |preferred set of values ; but where those values originate from is a debatable question. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ...
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...and exist forever is immortality. Continuer is not the same person as the original deceased person , it is just a fissioned one,which lives in another space,is the continue existence of the deceased. Spatial-temporal continuity is the necessary condition of personal identity. Also,it provides the possibility for the immortality. 3.(1)From wikipedia,Peter van Inwagen (born September 21, 1942, United States) is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He previously taught at Syracuse University and earned his PhD from the University of Rochester under the direction of Richard Taylor and Keith Lehrer. Van Inwagen is one of the leading figures in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of action. (2)In this article,Peter van Inwagen introduced the readers the causal relevant matter of immortality.he refers to it as the “naked kernel”,the seed that continues to exist until God "clothes it in a festal garment of new flesh".He also...
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...Katlyn Revell May 27, 2016 ENGL 2112 Enlightenment to Romanticism: Metaphysics The Enlightenment was the realism of reality, and that science was the key. The Romanticism was about improving oneself for that is the only thing one can improve. However, both eras had something in common, and that is Metaphysical writing/poetry. We accept that any state of mind is extremely complex, and mainly composed by change influenced by desire and fear. Metaphysical is made of two words 'meta' –meaning beyond and 'physical' meaning our surroundings are an artificial world. (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2015) The inclination of metaphysical writing is toward psychological analysis of the emotions of religion, life, existence, and love. The characteristics of Metaphysical writing include the use of strange and sometimes unnerving imagery, use of paradox and exceedingly intellectualized and complicated thought. (Nebo Literature) Metaphysics deals with questions that can't be explained by science, it questions the nature of reality in a philosophical way, such as “Does God exist?”, “what is the difference between reality and perception?”, and “Is everything predetermined or do we still have free will?” (“Metaphysical Poetry”, 2016) Metaphysical writers try to explain the emotional and spiritual elements of life in concrete, rational and logical terms. For the Enlightenment period, Voltaire’s Candide is an example of metaphysical writing. In 1686, a prominent philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz...
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...University of Phoenix Material Metaphysics Matrix and Essay Part 1 Matrix: Analyze metaphysics in philosophy by completing the following matrix. Provide a definition of the branch of philosophy as given in a philosophical source (the readings, supplemental materials, or outside academic sources) and list a minimum of three historical developments, theories, key contributors, and principal issues. Bullet point answers are acceptable. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ...
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...reality. Putting that in perspective would be saying that Carl Jung’s archetypes are the objective reality seeing as though they appear in ever human being’s dreams. Even that wouldn’t make sense then because taking accounts or measurements of something changes the thing measured. This means that for a person to perceive reality it changes the nature of reality meaning that it can’t be absolute. Then to expand objective metaphysics is not real. The whole point of the study of metaphysics is to try and derive objective reality from the subjective reality that human beings experience through their senses and consciousness. Rand’s metaphysics are based on “objective reality” in which she states the human identity and consciousness are the basis. So basically Rand says. “what you see is what you...
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...Metaphysics PHL/215 Nilson Goncalves 03/24/2014 Metaphysics can be defined as attempt to understand the basic characteristic of reality, a branch of philosophy similar to chemistry and astrology only to be defined by it’s subject matter. Metaphysics is Aristotle’s significant philosophical work explaining the fundamental nature of being, and the world that contains the theory of being. According to Plato and metaphysics transcript “ there exist two worlds that of physical object, which we perceive by our senses and the world of ideas, which one can grasp only through our intellect “what is ultimately there? And what is it like? Are the two basic questions that metaphysics attempts to answer? The purpose of metaphysics is to reach beyond nature and to define reason for being. One of the fundamental branch of metaphysics is ontology, the basic investigation in the categories of being and how the relate to one another. Another branch of metaphysics is cosmology the study of the fundamental structure, origin and nature of the universe. A common belief is that reality is defined by what we can see, smell, hear, touch and taste. This type of philosophy Is called empiricism which states that all that we know comes from our senses, that every thing that we can touch and see must be real and that if we can not see or be able to touch something it cant be real. This cannot be true cause there are things in this world that cannot be detected by our senses such as emotions...
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...Study Guide: Lesson 7 Introducing Metaphysics Lesson Overview Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with questions of reality. Since it deals with literally everything that exists, it is perhaps the broadest branch of philosophy. However, we will briefly spend time in this area. In this lesson, we will introduce some of the questions that we seek to answer in metaphysics as well as some basic metaphysical terminology you will need to master as we discuss metaphysical issues. We will also discuss the issue of method in arriving at answers to our metaphysical questions. Tasks Review and take notes of the presentation, “Metaphysical Terminology.”-Deals with reality - has 2 aspects to it: events and things or (time and space) -things: 3 attributes; properties, substance and an essence * Know the 4 characteristics of properties.- other words for properties: as qualities or characteristics; definition: this is an attribute or a quality a thing is said to possess, it’s a characteristic about that particular thing, (color, texture, size, shape) (adjectives) * 1) Properties are universals- they can be in more than one thing at a time. * 2) Properties are immutable and eternal- they do not change over time. * 3) Properties inhere in things- they are “had” by or are “in” things (they have to exist in things) * 4) Properties do not have causal powers- they cannot cause any things or event to occur. Two kinds: Accidental...
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