Metaphysics Flashcards
monism
- strict belief it is either one or the other
- believes it is 100% material or 100% thoughts
dualism: Descartes
There are 2 substances; extended things (objective reality), and thinking things (thoughts)
dualism: property dualism
- extension on descartes
- we have physical world then have mental world that is produced by the physical world
dualism: epiphenomenalism
There is the objective world and that thoughts are physical by-products by the brain specifically
Idealism
- Reality that only comes from the mind
- reality is a product of thought
- reality exists in the mind, therefore everybody’s reality is different
- example of an idea of reality as a mental construct and monism
materialism
- believes reality is objective material
- everything in reality comes down to matter/material
- an example of an idea of reality as material based and monism
heraclitus (pre-Socratic)
- certain that reality is ever changing, never the same
- “I can never step in the same river twice” - suggests that reality is always changing and we cannot step in the same river twice
- no definite edges
- infinite
- everything is governed by “logos”/logic
parmenidies (pre-Socratic)
- Reality never changes
- reality is:
timeless
uniform
motionless
indivisible - Only that which is can be thought about
- If something is not, it cannot be thought about
- We cannot bring anything in existence, there is nothing new under the sun
Nagarjuna: Emptiness
- Anything that is real, is “empty”
- has to do with perspective and perception
- we must be able to detach ourselves in order to understand what we are looking at (seperation)
- his reasoning: all things are dependent in the way that all things originate from other things or conditions which in turn originate from other things or conditions, ad infinitum
- by extension, if the ultimate reality of every thing is that there is no ultimate reality, that everything is ‘empty,’ then even conventional reality & truth are empty
Nagarjuna: conventional reality
- how you see the world; what you experience; your own reality
- Example: Mr. Sneath’s daughter believes that she was in danger because of the strange behaviour
- by extension, if everything is ‘empty,’ then even conventional reality & truth are empty
Nagarjuna: ultimate reality
It is separate, it exists outside of us
Nagarjuna: conventional truth
how you see the world; what you experience
Nagarjuna: ultimate truth
Separation, it exists outside of us
Descartes: extended substances
- things that take up space
- AKA as ‘extension’
- e.g. rock
Descartes: thinking substances
‘thought’ as a thing
Spinoza
- believes there is only one substance: understood as “God” ; All encompassing ; not anthropomorphic (human shaped)
- does not depend on anything to exist: self causing
- states this one substance can be in things (re: objects, tangible things), but any ‘change’ in these things does not change the substance itself
- there is an infinite number of ways the substance can be expressed and ‘be’ (cf. materialism and idealism)
- Claims that this God is not our traditional understanding of god
- God is: timeless, perfect, infinite
Metaphysical Questions
what is reality?
what makes humans human?
supreme being?
Sartre: Existence precedes essence
- You exist before any essence
- We come into the world as a physical thing, then our essence develops as we live
Sartre: Initially, a person is nothing
- We come into the world as nothing and become in control of who we are
- “you will yourself to be”
Sartre: subjectivity
we are what we make of ourselves
Sartre: intersubjectivity
when we make ourselves who we are, we subconsciously make people that way we want them to be; the feeling when we realize which is a self opposing responsibility
Sartre: Anguish
The feeling that accompanies intersubjectivity
Sartre: forlorness
If god does not exist anything is possible, if that is true we are left to face the consequences alone; we are condemned to be free
Sartre: Despair
a) The feeling that the world does not adapt to us
b) the only reality is reality in action
- you must do the thing or it is just noise
Sartre: Moral choice is like the making of a work of art
Artists cannot point at the art and claim it to be art, the artwork simply becomes the art
Sartre: Existentialism
- does not pronounce pessimism but optimistic toughness
- one of the first principle is existence precedes essence
Sartre: acta non verba/Deeds not Words
We are not born a certain way, it is our actions that announce who we are