The Big Metaphysical Questions
by Michael Manbeck
Overall Conclusion
I've learned more about myself in researching these questions and theories, in that I am very undecided in what I believe in. Since there are so many answers and theories to these questions that I still don't know of or understand, I cannot come to a reasonable conclusion to any of them yet. From what I have learned in this short period of time, I find each theory and answer to have many pros and cons, with good-willed reasoning in all of them. For the future, I will continue to expand my depth and breadth of understanding on many of these concepts. Eventually, I'll be able to come to conclusions on my beliefs around these questions.
What is consciousness?
Existence and Consciousness
Rene Descartes
Descartes believes that consciousness is an innate property of all thoughts, by which the individual becomes aware of the thought itself.
John Locke
Locke believes that personal identity, the self, is founded on consciousness.
Mind and Matter
Rene Descartes
Descartes founded the concept of Cartesian dualism, which in simple terms states that the mind and body are distinct substances.
Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes denied the existence of a non-material mind, because everything that existed had to be material.
My Beliefs
I am not sure what I truly believe in yet, but I would like to believe that the mind and body are separate entities, which is called dualism. I believe this theory allows reincarnation to be possible.
Does God exist?
Cosmology and Cosmogony
Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza believes that there is only one substance in the universe, God, and therefore everything that exists is God. He believes the universe follows a set of natural laws, that everything that happens could not have happened differently, and that the universe is one being, which is God.
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas believed that something can not come from nothing, therefore there must be a 'first mover' of the universe, which is God.
Religion and Spirituality
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche famously said "God is Dead." Nietzsche believes that the Enlightenment eliminates the possibility for a god to exist.
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas believed that God exists, because existence in itself is a part of God's essence or nature.
Ralph Cudworth
Cudworth believed that God exists, not knowing what he/it appears or manifests as.
David Hume
Hume believed that if God exists, he cannot fit the criteria for being all-knowing, all-powerful, and entirely beneficent. The presence of evil suggests God is either all-powerful but not completely good, or he is well-meaning but unable to destroy evil, and so not all-powerful.
My Beliefs
I am not sure of my beliefs yet, but I like Spinoza's theory, that God is the whole of nature interconnected. Right now, I refuse to believe in any theory in particular.
What is the meaning of life?
Religion and Spirituality
Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza believed that the way to 'salvation' was to live life to expand one's understanding of God, and of nature and its laws. Spinoza believed that philosophy, like a spiritual practice, was a way of life, whose goal is happiness and liberation.
Thomas Aquinas
According to Aquinas, life is a gift from God to be loved, nurtured and lived in proper charity.
Mind and Matter
Friedrich Nietzsche
According to Nietzsche, the meaning of life is to "live authentically and powerfully, creating one's own goals and values." Nietzsche popularized the theory of Nihilism, essentially stating that life doesn't have an inherent meaning or purpose.
My Beliefs
I don't have an appeal to one theory in particular. However, I do see the reasoning why Nietzsche believes life doesn't have inherent meaning. From that stance, I believe it's up to me to make my life meaningful in my own way.