Metaphysics

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Metaphysics

Why is there something, rather than nothing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-QkJUxcGt8&ab_channel=CloserToTruth Example: In this interview, the phycist Sean Carroll is asked the question "why is there something rather than nothing?". At around the 1:23 mark of the video, he simply responds: "why not?" A seemingly simple answer to a huge question but an answer that is perfectly valid. He states that there doesn't seem to be any reasoning behind the existence of the quantum laws that govern our universe. It just makes sense that they exist and therefore their existence is one of those "brute facts" we must accept as true.

Many answers to these questions can be found in both ancient and medieval philosophy. Aquinas relied on the law of causality to devise his cosmological argument in which he asserted the existence of God. By stating that for every effect there must be a cause, his logic leads him to assert that some divine being was the first cause (or mover, hence prime mover argument).

Identity and Change

Philsophers: Aristotle, Leibniz

Theory: Law of Identity

Theory: Law of Causality

Philosophers: Aristole, Poincaré

Necessity and Possibility

Philosophers: David Lewis, Thomas Aquinas

Theory: Modal Realism

What is consciousness?

This question leads one to consider how consciousness can de determined in a person. Is it a physical thing? Why does it exist? Descartes put consciousness at the basis of what it is the be thinking thing. "I think therefore I am."

Objects and their properties

Philosophers: Descartes, Russell

Theory: Reductionism

Theory: Substance Theory

Philsophers: Descartes, Plato

https://katherinehawleydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/applied-metaphysics-may-5th.pdf Example: This paper examines real world applications of ontology. Notable here is the use of ontology tht has become prevalent in the world of computing sciences. As the information systems that computer scientists build become more and more complex, it becomes more and more important to categorise and organise the system. In doing so, the programmer is forced to rely on ontology to determine the nature of existence for various terms. For example, if the program is seeking to store information about bikes, the programmer would have to use their own ontology to determine standardised descriptions of what a bike is, what parts constitute the bike, etc. This is a simple example but it still shows how the programmer is making use of ontology to determine the “rules” of existence in the system.

Does any of this - even my act of questioning - even actually matter?

Hobbes would argue that the questioning does matter. As a compatibilist, he believed that a person's freedom is dependant on their ability to fulfill their desires, unimpeded by external forces. Therefore, asking questions about our existence asserts that freedom.

Determinism and Freewill

Example: When considering my choices for where to go to university, sometimes I feel like the decision is already made. This feeling stems from the idea that my past experiences leading up to this point have shaped my decision making in such a way that that my choice could have never been otherwise. The idea that previous actions are causal to all future decisions is indicative of a deterministic argument

Philosophers: Hobbes, Aristotle

Theory:Fatalism

Theory: Compatibilism

Religion and Spirituality

Example: Religion can be seen as a system of metaphysical questions to which the religion has chosen answers. For example, Buddhism answers the question of whether or not we have a soul and life after death by formulating the belief in reincarnation. Christianity differs with its notion of Heaven and Hell.

Philosophers: Voltaire, Russell

Theory: Humanism

Philosophers: Descartes

Does the world really exist?

In Descartes' Meditations on the Metaphysical, he ponders this very question. He poses the hypothetical scenario that there is a demon that is tricking him into believing that the external world exists. It is impossibke to disprove this, according to him, and so it is impossible to assert the existence of a reailty outside of ourselves.

Philosophers: Descartes, Heidegger

Theory: Truth of Being

Mind and Matter

Philosophers: Descartes, Plato

Theory: Dualistic Theory

Theory: Cartesian Skepticism

Example: this meme illustrates the rigour with which Descartes questionned his surroundings. It also shows how easily his skepticism can be adapted to fit our humour.

Necessity and possibilty

Philosophers: Aquinas, Einstein

Theory: Cosmological Argument

Theory:Quantum Mechanics

What is our place in the universe?

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/ Example: When NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft, they included a golden record on board. Contained on the record are images, songs and other details about human life as well as instructions on how to find Earth. The idea that the essence of a species can be boiled down to one record in hopes that some alien race will be able to read can provoke metaphysical inquiry. What have we truly accomplished if it can be summarized through a few images and songs? What if no one ever finds the record? Are we alone?

The question can be answered literally or figuratively. In the literal sense, our place in the universe can be described in relation to a certain frame of reference. Figuratively speaking, our place, or purpose, as humanity is constantly changing. The fact that we are able to reason and use logic to ponder these perhaps unanswerable questions can be frustrating. I think that through philosophy we are able to have a thorough understanding of why these questions are so important to us but the answers to these questions may be out of our reach.

Existence and Consciousness

Philosophers: Locke, Leibniz

Theory: Epistemology

Theory: Ontology

Space and Time

Philosophers: Aristotle, Poincaré

Theory: Conventionalism

Theory: Absolutism

Cosmology/Cosmogony

Philosophers: Spinoza, Voltaire

Theory: Deism

Theory: Theism