Metaphysics

• Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature

of existence, being and the world. Arguably, metaphysics is
the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" (or
sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first
causes and the principles of things".

• It asks questions like: "What is the nature of reality?", "How does the world
exist, and what is its origin or source of creation?", "Does the world exist
outside the mind?", "How can the incorporeal mind affect the physical
body?", "If things exist, what is their objective nature?", "Is there a God (or
many gods, or no god at all)?"
 3 Main Sections of Metaphysics
• Ontology (the study of being and existence, including the definition and
classification of entities, physical or mental, the nature of their properties,
and the nature of change)
• Natural Theology (the study of God, including the nature of religion and
the world, existence of the divine, questions about the creation, and the
various other religious or spiritual issues)
• Universal Science (the study of first principles of logic and reasoning,
such as the law of noncontradiction)
6 Methods of
Philosophizing
1. Phenomenology
• Founded by Edmund Husserl (1859- 1938)
• The study of experience and ways in which things present themselves in and
through experience.
• Attempts to describe the essential features or structures of a given experience or
any experience in general
• One of the central structures of any experience is Intentionality or its “being directed
toward some object or state of affairs.
• Henomenology- descriptive study of the set of phenomena or experiences.
 Analytic Philosophy
• Analytic philosophy was founded by a group of British philosophers who agreed
primarily on one thing: they couldn’t stand Hegel. A highly influential German
philosopher of the 19th century, Hegel theorized brilliantly about history, language,
and consciousness, but he wrote in a disorganized way, with story-like arguments,
rather than making the systematic, line-by-line proofs preferred by the Brits.
• is based on the idea that philosophical problems can be solved through an analysis
of their terms, and pure, systematic logic. Many traditional philosophical problems
are dismissed because their terms are too vague, while those that remain are
subjected to a rigorous logical analysis.
• For example, a traditional philosophical problem is “Does God exist?”
Various philosophical schools have proposed answers to this question, but
analytic philosophy approaches it by saying, “What do you mean by God?”
Different religions have wildly different ideas about what the word “God”
means, so before you can approach the question of God’s existence you have
to define your terms more clearly.
• is more interested in conceptual questions—questions about the meanings
of words and statements and their logical relations–than it is in spiritual or
practical issues such as morality or the meaning of life.
• Analytic philosophers rely heavily on the vocabulary, assumptions, and
equations of symbolic logic in their arguments.
 Postmodernism
• Postmodernism is difficult to define, because to define it would violate the
postmodernist's premise that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute
truths exist. In this article, the term “postmodernism” will remain vague,
since those who claim to be postmodernists have varying beliefs and
opinions on issues.
• They believe that truth is relative and truth is up to each individual to
determine for himself.
• Postmodernism claims to be the successor to the 17th century
Enlightenment. For over four centuries, “postmodern thinkers” have
promoted and defended a New Age way of conceptualizing and rationalizing
human life and progress. Postmodernists are typically atheistic or agnostic
while some prefer to follow eastern religion thoughts and practices. Many are
naturalist including humanitarians, environmentalists, and philosophers.
Enlightenment
• The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human
knowledge and defied the tradition and the pre-established thoughts
of the past. this is the period in which the humans became overconfident in
the human Reason an rationality.
• John Locke is considered generally as the founder of Enlightenment
movement in philosophy.
• Postmodernists do not attempt to refine their thoughts about what is right or
wrong, true or false, good or evil. They believe that there isn’t such a thing as
absolute truth. A postmodernist views the world outside of themselves as
being in error, that is, other people’s truth becomes indistinguishable from
error. Therefore, no one has the authority to define truth or impose upon
others his idea of moral right and wrong.
 Logic
• (from the Greek "logos", which has a variety of meanings including word,
thought, idea, argument, account, reason or principle) is the study
of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference
and demonstration. It attempts to distinguish good reasoning from bad
reasoning.
• Aristotle defined logic as "new and necessary reasoning", "new" because
it allows us to learn what we do not know, and "necessary" because its
conclusions are inescapable. It asks questions like "What is correct
reasoning?", "What distinguishes a good argument from a bad one?", "How
can we detect a fallacy in reasoning?"