Metaphysics (original) (raw)

Why Metaphysics? A Rather Ambitious Introduction

Neoaristotelian Perspectives in Metaphysics (Routledge), 2014

This volume re-examines some of the major themes at the intersection of traditional and contemporary metaphysics. The book uses as a point of departure Francisco Suárez’s Metaphysical Disputations published in 1597. Minimalist metaphysics in empiricist/pragmatist clothing have today become mainstream in analytic philosophy. Independently of this development, the progress of scholarship in ancient and medieval philosophy makes clear that traditional forms of metaphysics have affinities with some of the streams in contemporary analytic metaphysics. The book brings together leading contemporary metaphysicians to investigate the viability of a neo-Aristotelian metaphysics.

Metaphysics AN INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW.docx

Modern Metaphysics, 2007

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between possibility and actuality. Reviewing these papers will set the scene for a REVIEW of the very popular KANTISM of Today. Metaphysics is the science of being and ask the question “What really exists?” The answer to this question has been sought for by mankind since the beginning of recorded time. In the past 2500 years there have been many answers to this question and these answers dominate our view of how physics is done. Examples of questions which were originally metaphysical are the shape of the earth, the motion of the earth, the existence of atoms, the relativity of space and time, the uncertainty principle, the renormalization of field theory and the existence of quarks and strings. we should explore our changing conception of what constitutes reality by examining the views of Aristotle, Ptolemy, St. Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Compte, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman, Schwinger, Yang, Gell-Mann, Wilson and Witten ET AL https://cds.cern.ch/record/311040/files/9609160.pdf IE IS THE INTERNATIONAL DEBT SIMPLY A FIGMENT OF ALL OUR IMAGINATION? IT MAY NEVER BE REPAID IN FULL HENCE IT MAY FOLLOW THAT IN FACT IT DOES NOT EXIST THEREFORE: ""WHY WORRY?"" Metaphysics Peter van Inwagen Meghan Sullivan SEE PDF

Brief Essay on the Nature and Method of Metaphysics

The Incarnate Word, 2023

This paper is an attempt to clarify, from a Thomistic point of view, the nature and method of metaphysics. I argue that metaphysics' object is created being, not God, even if God enters metaphysics as efficient cause of metaphysic's object. Also, that metaphysics is a science, insofar as a particular kind of coherent reasoning process, going from the many to understand a certain oneness, and then from that oneness to reinterpret the many. Moreover, that, in this particular process of reasoning, doctrinal topics must follow a certain order. Thus, in particular, I argue that the distinction between essence and act of being in every creature cannot be argued before arguing the existence of God. I touch upon the notion of separation in metaphysics and I compare Aquinas' notion of resolution with Fabro's notion.

The Object and Method of Metaphysics

Many critiques against metaphysics have much to do with its method or object. For example, Hume, Kant, and some members of the Vienna Circle all argue against metaphysics as a science from an anthropological or epistemological perspective. Their arguments are primarily against the possibility of metaphysics as a science, as a human endeavor. Is human reason capable of grasping and expressing metaphysical truths? Although it is well beyond the scope of this paper to provide a complete answer to any of these criticisms, I believe that an adequate understanding of the object and method of metaphysics are an important first step. In this paper I will argue that analogy is central to understanding metaphysics--both in providing a unity to its object as well as being integral to the method of metaphysical inquiry.

Metaphysics: A Guided Tour for Beginners

Philosophy of Being, Cognition and Values, 2012

This book contains a concise introduction to one of the most fundamental branches of philosophy which deals with reality and its nature. It is based on a series of lectures which the author has been giving for several years to the first-year undergraduate students as part of their Philosophy of Being, Cognition and Value program at the University of Warsaw. Among the topics discussed are such metaphysical questions as “Are we fundamentally free?”, “Does time really pass?”, “Are there any abstract objects?”, “What is causation?”, “What are necessary and possible truths?”. The book is aimed at absolute beginners, so it does not presuppose any previous knowledge of philosophy from the reader. For those who would like to pursue the subject a bit deeper, the book comes equipped with an extended list of further reading.

There Might be a Special Problem with Metaphysics!

In “There is no Special Problem with Metaphysics,” Karen Bennett argues that there is no special problem with metaphysics: That is, there is no distinctive feature (or features) of metaphysics that is (or are) problematic. In doing so, Bennett also comes to a disjunctive definition of metaphysics: Metaphysics is a discipline that maintains the tools employed by other disciplines and—for accidental reasons—covers various other topics (e.g. free will, consciousness, mereology). In this paper, I argue that there might be a special problem with metaphysics, after all. To that end, I present and analyze Bennett’s argument, clarify the definition of metaphysics, provide an objection to Bennett’s argument, and outline some potential special problems with metaphysics.

Metaphysics after the Critique of Metaphysics

Religion and the Arts, 2023

In his monumental and informative work, Incomprehensible Certainty, Thomas Pfau starts with a question taken from Dostoevsky’s The Idiot: “Can something that has no image come as an image?” This important question also applies well to Giorgio Agamben’s and Niklaus Largier’s works, since all three works share a common interest in the challenges of metaphysics: the unspeakable in Largier, Being (to on), or “The One” in Pfau, and the relation between being and language, or being and thinking in Agamben. Full article here: https://brill.com/view/journals/rart/27/1-2/rart.27.issue-1-2.xml

What does "metaphysics," the word and the idea, mean

www.jclfa.com, 2023

Many, if not all, philosophers own a meaning of the word metaphysics. In this essay I intend to demonstrate that the lexical and user's meaning of the word are often far apart. In the spirit of A. J. Ayer, evidence suggests that it is largely nonsense and yet it is what most philosophers claim to be a study of "reality." This essays offers alternatives.