Aristotle’s Philosophy: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics
The Problem of Reality: Metaphysics
Aristotle argues that there is only Physis. This is subdivided into a supralunar world (the stars, made of ether and where there is no corruption) and the sublunary world, the land that comprises the four elements and where there is change. This Physis is studied by physics, and their ultimate foundation, through metaphysics.
Physics
Physics studies the Physis. According to hylomorphic theory, humans are composed of matter, what they are made of, and Form, its substance
Read MoreNietzsche’s Radical Critique of Culture, Religion, and Morality
Nietzsche’s Philosophy: A Critique of Culture
The whole philosophy of Nietzsche is, first, a radical critique of the foundations of Western culture based on a metaphysics. Religion and morality have replaced and inverted the values of life. Moreover, it is an attempt to overcome this culture that qualifies as a product of resentment against life.
The Apollonian and the Dionysian: Philosophy as a Tragic View of Life
In his book “The Birth of Tragedy”, Nietzsche outlines key issues in his philosophy.
Read MoreRené Descartes: Philosophy, Metaphysics, and the Mind-Body Problem
René Descartes (1596-1650): A Foundation of Modern Philosophy
The *Cogito* and Cartesian Philosophy
René Descartes’ philosophy centers on the principle of Cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”). This foundational concept is necessary to justify a principle of the whole demonstration (axiom). Descartes defines substance as something concrete and existing, characterized by independent existence, needing nothing other than itself to exist. He distinguishes between infinite substance (God) and
Read MoreImmanuel Kant’s Philosophy: Ethics and Reason
Immanuel Kant’s Moral Philosophy
Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, formerly Prussia, in 1724. He belongs to the Enlightenment. He was an advocate of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, despite being regarded as a pacifist and against all exclusionary patriotism. His seminal works include “Critique of Pure Reason,” “Critique of Practical Reason,” and “Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason.”
Theoretical and Practical Reason
Kant’s ethical theory is called moral formalism
Read MoreTranscendental Logic: Dialectic, Reason, and the Nature of Reality
Transcendental Logic: Transcendental Dialectic
The Uses of Reason
Finite human reason has several different uses:
- Theoretical Use: This is the scientific use, the use of reason to know “what is,” to know things as they are. With this scientific use, we answer the first question: “What can I know?” We know everything that is bound by rules that impose *a priori* space, time, and categories, that is, phenomena or objects of experience. In other words, theoretical knowledge organizes experience. This
Understanding the Limits of Human Knowledge and Truth
Understanding the Limits of Human Knowledge
This is the second fundamental issue in establishing what we know, and there are three basic positions.
Dogmatism
- Affirms that intellectual capacity is sufficient to know reality as it is, so that you can set universal and absolute truths, completely certain and indubitable.
- This position is based on total trust in the possibilities of the senses or human reason.
- It is considered a naive position that has been criticized by many philosophers. For example, Kant