DESCRIPTION OF INTERACTIVE
Can our thought processes influence our physical reality? In metaphysics, questions regarding mind and matter (also known as the mind-body dilemma) focus on where our consciousness resides. If the mind is not physical, then how can it have effects in the physical world? But if the mind is physical, then how can we explain consciousness? Are the mind and matter different substances? If so, are we dualistic (definition: In philosophy and theology, any system that explains phenomena by two opposing principles. Many philosophers hold to a dualism of mind and matter, or mind and body.) in nature? How does something as physical as the brain create something as immaterial as one’s sense of self?
Key Philosophers: Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Spinoza, Descartes.
Key Theories: Dualistic theory, Cartesian skepticism.
How do you know that you ‘exist?’ This may seen like a strange question as you would probably look down at your body and suggest that as you are conscious of ‘being,’ then you must exist - right? And yet that very question is one that is considered debatable in terms of metaphysics. At the heart of it is that consciousness is the faculty by which we perceive that things exist - but how trustworthy is our perception? Consciousness is axiomatic - you can’t logically deny your mind’s existence at the same time that you are using your mind to do the denying. In this way, existence is also axiomatic (definition: A statement accepted as true as there is no more basic way to prove or disprove it since it is self-evident or unquestionable.). Existence ‘exists’ simply as there seems to be something rather than nothing.
The primacy of existence states that existence is primary and consciousness is secondary, because there can be no consciousness without something existing to perceive.
In a nutshell, is there a difference between the perceiver and the perceived?
Key Philosophers: Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers.
Key Theories: Epistemology, Ontology, Truth of Being.
Identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable - it is what makes something unique. Change is an alteration of that identity.
According to Aristotle's Law of Identity, a thing cannot exist without existing as something, otherwise it would be nothing and it would not exist. Why is this important? Identity means existence; existence means reality.
But what happens if something changes? For something to change (an effect), a thing needs to be acted upon (the cause). How does change affect reality or existence?
Key Philosophers: Aristotle, Leibniz.
Key Theories: Law of Identity, Law of Causality.
Ever look up from a good book and realize that hours have gone by as if they were minutes? Or sat in a class, convinced you have been trapped there for hours, only to note - to your dismay - that you have been there for mere minutes (with what seems like an eternity still to suffer). How does that happen? Why does time seem to exist without a constant directional flow? Does time, other than the present, exist congruently (definition: The quality or state of agreeing, coinciding, or being in accordance with.)?
A traditional Realist (definition: Reality is independent of our perceptions.) position is that time and space have existence independent from the human mind. Idealists (definition: We can never be sure that anything beyond our consciousness is real as our senses can delude us.), however, claim that space and time are mental constructs used to organize perceptions - time and space are essentially unreal.
Related to this are questions regarding whether times other than the present one exist, and, how identity changes over time.
Key Philosophers and Theorists: J.M.E. McTaggart, Albert Einstein, Descartes, Leibniz , Isaac Newton, Ernst Mach.
Key Theories: The Bucket Argument, Absolutism, Principle of Relativity, Conventionalism.
While theology is considered an entirely separate branch of philosophy, metaphysics also questions the nature of religion and spirituality. For example, metaphysics asks questions such as:
Theism or Deism? Is there a Divine Being that intervenes directly in the world, or was it just a ‘first cause’ that began the universe - then left?
Is there more than one god, a single God, or no gods at all?
Key Philosophers: Hume, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Marilyn McCord Adams, Aquinas.
Key Theories: Scholasticism, Fideism, Deism, Atheism, Humanism, Monotheism.
A necessary fact is true across all possible worlds. A possible fact is one that is true in some possible world (even if not in the actual world). For example, Thomas Aquinas uses this argument to explain the existence of God by stating that if it is possible for nothing to have ever existed, then nothing would exist still.
Key Philosophers: Thomas Aquinas, Leibniz, David Lewis, Aristotle.
Key Theories: Modal Realism, Cosmological Argument, Quantum Mechanics.
It is widely supposed that every entity falls into one of two categories: some are concrete; the rest are abstract. The theory of abstract objects is a metaphysical theory.
Some philosophers hold that there are abstract objects - such as numbers, mathematical objects, and fictional entities. There are also universals, such as properties that can be possessed by multiple objects - as in “redness” or “squareness.”
Numbers are also abstract objects. For example, we can say we have two eyes, two ears, two hands, but what exactly does “2” mean? The number doesn’t physically exist anywhere – it isn’t located in space or time – but it exists independently as an abstract entity.
Key Philosophers: Aristotle, Plato.
Key Theories: Nominalism, Realism, Platonic forms, Conceptualism.
Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.
Free Will is the exact opposite of this. It contains the power of choice - it proposes that we are rational agents that have autonomous control over our own actions and decisions. There are also proponents of a grey area in between (Compatibilists), who believe that a path has been set for us, but we can choose which direction to take along it.
Ultimately, the question is how much control over our own destiny do we have?
Key Philosophers: Spinoza, Hobbes.
Key Theories: Determinism, Fatalism, Compatibilism.
Cosmology is the study of the cosmos or universe. Cosmogony is a scientific explanation of how the universe came into being. Cosmology is related to Theology as it often proposes the notion of a deity was involved in the creation and continuation of the universe.
As humans are fascinated with the concepts of our "place in the universe," knowing where or how the universe came into being may help us to understand ourselves better. Metaphysical cosmology usually deals with questions that go “beyond science," such as the cause of the origin of the universe or whether its existence has a purpose.
Key Philosophers: Spinoza, Voltaire Plotinus.
Key Theories: Diesem, Theology.
The world contains many individual things. Whether those things are physical, such as a cat, ramen noodles, or a sweater - or abstract things, such as ‘happiness’ - what these things have in common with each other is called ‘universals’ or ‘properties.’
Some metaphysicians are interested in the nature of objects and their properties, and the relationship between the two. For example, do objects exist independently of their properties and, if so, in what way? If something is red, is there such a thing as a property of ‘redness’ that is independent of the object?
Key Philosophers: Descartes, Russell, Alfred Edward Taylor.
Key Theories: Pragmatism, Substance Theory, Objecthood, Holism, Reductionism.