Metaphysics: Key Concepts and Philosophical Methods
Topics of Metaphysics
The word “metaphysics” is a collection invented to designate the works of Aristotle that dealt with the first principles of all sciences:
- Science: Decides the object of study more precisely, leading to a perfect, precise language. The strength of scientific evidence is very powerful, so that no physicist discusses the theories of relativity or quantum mechanics.
- Philosophy: Does not have the strength of scientific evidence. It seems that neither philosophers nor scientists agree on the language or the method.
Autonomy acquires a knowledge method when there are strong criteria of truth, when it becomes independent of philosophy and metaphysics. The works of philosophers are to be regarded as:
- Stories of how they see things, the world, etc.
- Theories with truth claims.
A First Task of Ontology: Clarifying Terms
The main task of ontology is to find definitions of certain terms. They generally do so with technical language, although many times with colloquial language. There are several methods:
- Categories: Fundamental concepts that allow us to think, sort, and classify things.
- Being: This has multiple meanings. One refers to existence. The other describes the relationship that exists between a subject and a predicate.
- Entity: This is a word derived from the Greek “Ontos” and means that which exists, what it is.
- Substance/Accident: The substance is what has its own existence, and the accident is a quality that needs a substance to exist.
- Matter/Form: “Material” means the exam that directly matches one thing, while “form” is still your disposition or structure.
- Essence/Existence: The essence is the set of notes needed to make a thing what it is. Existence is the way that content, its essence, is in reality.
- Cause/Effect: Cause is what produces something, and effect is the result of a cause. Every movement, every change depends on a cause.
First Philosophy
We treated three major issues in ontology: real beings, consequence, and mental phenomena. Aristotle considered the first philosophy as “God as the foundation of all that exists” because he studied the fundamental principles of all reality.
- Idealist philosophers (phenomenologists): The starting point was consciousness because all we know is there.
- Realistic philosophers: Real people are the starting point of all our knowledge. Thomas Aquinas is one of them.
- Ontological philosophers: Believe that from God we can know reality. Spinoza and Malebranche thought the most immediate evidence is God, and it was Thomas Aquinas who thought that God is present in the knowledge of all things.
Ultimately, developing an ontology starting from the knowledge of God requires, as the first thing, knowledge of its existence and the knowledge of God. In the opinion of religious theology.
Basic Criteria of Truth
There are some criteria, and these are some that help us analyze and decide on various philosophical theories:
- Descriptive-philosophical theories (descriptions should be objective, comprehensive, systematic, and adjusted).
- These descriptions have to tap the knowledge of other sciences; otherwise, they would be incomplete.
- The terms used must be well-defined, are descriptive, or suspect if they have any real property of things.
- When a theory has to be put to the test.
- A philosophical theory must be internally and externally consistent.
- Capacity of a theory to criticize others.
- Any theory must perimeter conclusions and subject them to criticism.
Methods and Models of Philosophical Knowledge
Maieutic Method (Socrates)
It consists of a dialogue conducted through human reasoning. The creator of this method was Socrates, so it is also called the “Socratic method.” While a disciple of Socrates, Plato unveiled this method and put it into practice, whose works are all in the form of dialogue.
It aims to defend that truth is the beginning of our reason, but we need a thrust in order to come to light. The goal is to reach a definitive answer to overcome any objections. Truth is achieved with dialogue, with reasoning based on arguments.
Physical (Empirical)-Rational Methods (Aristotle)
The principle of this method is what Aristotle opposes to the Socratic method, and its creator (Socrates) and defender (Plato). He defends himself by saying that we must seek from inner experience.
Knowledge and truth have to be learned by observing nature and data that give us our senses. This is when speaking of reason, whose mission is to intervene by organizing, unifying. Ultimately they are trying to say that our senses tell us the truth.
Rationalist Method (Descartes)
It was developed in the Modern Age, and the best-known representative is Descartes. It is based on the defense of the primacy of reason. Reason works with logical rules or principles (deduction). From the first truth, others are derived. Knowing and applying these rules to human knowledge, we need a first truth, and from that, we deduce the rest.
As you think you know what I do, so that ideas are classified as innate, those born with them, and sensitive.
Empiricist Method (Hume)
It started in the Modern Age, together with “empiricism,” whose greatest representative was D. Hume. There are two kinds of truth:
- Truths of reason: Native of mathematics, and are based on the deduction of a set of principles. It is based on rational operations, which give us no information about external reality.
- Truths of fact: Own empirical science, are what give us the information of what happens in the world. If they are true or false, it can be verified by experience. They are based on induction.
A problem in radical empiricism is that general statements can never be proven completely, as any information you want to go beyond these data must be based on experience and habit.
Transcendental Method (Kant)
Kant was the creator, and his main concern was to explain how humans are capable of producing universal knowledge. His intention is to overcome the skepticism which led to Hume’s empiricism. In short, it is absolutely necessary from experience, as empiricism said. This method greatly influenced current philosophies.
Analytical-Linguistic Method (Wittgenstein)
It is also called the “philosophy of language.” Language has many uses, each with its own rules. And then when the author is most representative (Wittgenstein), he calls them “language games,” and that the problems come from the misuse of the rules. The main mission of philosophy is to clarify and explain the uses of language, with its possibilities and limits. In this way, philosophy becomes a judge, determining right and wrong in language.
Phenomenological Method (Husserl)
Phenomenology is a movement of philosophers who seek to investigate and describe phenomena directly when suffering consciousness. It is one of the most actual, and the most representative is Husserl. As in previous methods, locate irregularities, let aside, try other methods, with a different way of looking at the world, trying to forget preconceived ideas. In summary, it is based on respecting the phenomena, without thinking about it earlier.
Hermeneutical Method (Hermes: Messenger of the Gods)
The hermeneutic method becomes itself when it considers it necessary to explain all human phenomena. Like the natural sciences have their method, the human sciences will also have one (hermeneutic). This method tries to overcome relativism, which can bring us to historicity.