Understanding Ontology: Concepts, Problems, and God’s Existence
Ontology: The Science of Being
Ontology: the science of everything that is, everything there. It studies objects; the material object is the set of all beings. The formal object studies what all beings have in common: Being. Being is considered in various ways. There are real beings (like a board chair) and unreal beings (like pi, a memory), which are not real but somehow exist.
Problems of Ontology
Problems arise from physics: Physics makes theories about reality but speaks of entities that are difficult to define as real objects or just ideas. Additional problems also arise from the social sciences.
Clarifying Terms: The First Task of Ontology
Many concepts are so basic that we need examples to understand them.
Task: Look for definitions of terms, consisting of technical language (philosophical research) and colloquialisms. Husserl, Kant, Aristotle – substance / accident – Socrates is a rational animal (substance), which distinguishes him from others. That Socrates lives in Athens is an accident. Sculpture of CEUs (A) made of marble (material). To be is like to exist. And the relation between subject and predicate (Red House), cause (what produces something [criticizes Doltume]), effect (consequence of cause).
Step from Ontology to Epistemology
There are two basic categories that lead us into epistemology: real/unreal, or the study of knowledge that examines the relationship between the knowing subject and the object known. There is no experience or knowledge of someone real.
Example: A neurologist, while someone sleeps, detects neural activity (physical and real phenomena) but not cognitive activity (not real) because of “what is my body.”
With awareness, we admit conscious phenomena (mental reality), so there are physical and mental realities. Consciousness is intentional; everything I know is present in my consciousness, even unreal things (even the real things).
For some philosophers, consciousness is the starting point of philosophy.
Propp: The Three Worlds
- Physical
- Mental/Psychic
- Ideal (intermediate)
God as an Ontological Problem
The Study of God
For many people, God is a being that is really obvious in their consciousness. Theology: the science that deals with God through faith; Theodicy: from reason.
The goals of theology are to determine whether God exists and to study what kind of being God is.
The Problem of the Existence of God
Atheism, theism, pantheism (identification of reality with God (Spinoza)), agnosticism (inability to know (Tierno Galvan: “That’s being agnostic”).
Traditional Proofs of the Existence of God
- Principle of causality [St. Thomas Aquinas: Uses arguments “from effect” (ex post)]
- The idea of God (ontological arguments [St. Anselm of Canterbury: Uses arguments “from cause” (a priori)])
- The law of moral existence: God as provider of justice [Kant]
First Philosophy
Aristotle, because he studies the fundamental principles of all reality.
- Realistic philosophers: Real people are the starting point of our knowledge [Thomas Aquinas].
- Idealistic philosophers: Starting point: consciousness.
- Ontological philosophers: From God alone can we know reality [Spinoza], and Thomas Aquinas believes God is present in the knowledge of all things.