Metaphysics

• What is metaphysics?


  Is the study of basic structures of reality, dealing with things and how they exist
• Areas looked at in this branch

  • time and eternity
  • being and nothingness
  • personhood and thinghood
  • space and time
• How did this branch (metaphysics) get its name?


  after Aristotle, people went through his works and found his untitles work on metaphysics right after his works on physics in the same book so they decided it to call it "after physics" As à result they were called mata-ta-physika biblia in Greek, the phrase means “the books that come after physics.”
• The experience Machine:

  you will be put into a coma that you’ll never emerge from and then you experience everything you dream of and essentially experience your life but it is only à simulation and is not real.
• What is reality?

  a)everything, b)everything you can, feel, touch, hear, taste, and see.

  Essentially it is established as whatever you perceive under normal conditions
• Definition of myths:

  Is a traditional story including natural or social phenomena, and usually involves supernatural beings or events
• Key philosophers of myths?

  • carl jung
  • sigmond freud
  • lucien lévy-bruhl
• what is naturalism?


  is the idea/theory that explains how everything can be explained by natural causes and laws without the super natural
• philosophers who believe in naturalism?

  - E.O Wilson, prtagoras
• What is Plato's form?

  is Plato's idea/theory that the ideal version of everything exists in our mind but everything in real life is jus an imperfect version of the ideal version in our head, like a shadow.
• Example of Plato's form:

  What do all wise men have in common, wisdom. Wisdom is the essence and pure form of which makes an wise man wise.
• How did Plato's thoughts lead to his theory?

  He believed that everyone has a soul and before everyone's soul connected to a body, it was in the world of forms, which is the world of the ideal versions of everything, that is why we can tell the essences of everything.
• The Allegory of the cave:

  is a story by Plato about people who are trapped in a dark cave and can only see shadows on the wall. They think the shadows are real because that's all they've ever known. When one person escapes and sees the outside world, they realize there's a whole lot more to reality than they thought. It's like discovering a whole new way of seeing things
• what is Taoism/Daoism?


  is an idea that suggests that people can't grasp the true nature of reality. it also emphasizes that life and death are inevitable and that everything in life is a cycle. The tao keeps the universe balanced.
• what is idealism?


  is when ideas and our minds are the most important aspects of reality. Our thoughts are what shape the world around us rather than the whole world existing independently in our heads.
• Platonic idealism: is Plato's form of idealism theory but later thinkers changed it saying God is the ultimate creator
• What is modern Idealism?


  same as idealism, but adaptions made by later philosophers
• What did Berkleys argue?

  • He argued that everything we perceive is just inside our minds and there is nothing outside our thoughts
  • he believed ideas like material substances were bad because it could leas to atheism
• What was Kant's response?

  He disagreed with Berkley, he believes in "relative idealism" which is the idea that some things are mental, in our minds, like space and time, but not everything
• German Idealism

  • Kant believed that there were things beyond our perceptions that we can't fully understand. this idea was resurfaced in the late 18th and 19th century and was adapted by other philosophers
• Absolute Idealism 


  is the idea that explanations from our perceptions come from within our minds, without needing anything external like God or anything superior
• What is materialism?


  It is when anything we can't percive doesn't exist. This includes testimony by others, if theirs no physical, actual proof, it doesn't exist.
• what is Dualism?

  • Is between idealism and materialism
  • it's the idea that what we perceive and the physical world are both equal, we can not reduce to one or the other