Deep Though Diving

• Metaphysics

• In ancient times metaphyiscs and philosophy could not be distinguished from each outher
• Nowadays philosophy is conceived as the SEARCH FOR WISDOM
• Metaphysics : ANSWER THE QUESTION OF BEING/EXISTENCE and its aspects
• “Life means for us constantly to transform into light and flameall that we are or meet wtuh”
• “know thyself” Nietzsche . knowing the world starts w/ our self existence.
• ATTEMPTS TO GIVE REALITY AND ITS ASPECTS INTERPRETATIONS OR MEANINGS

• Reasons why people fail to examine the basic questions about life and existence.

1. The need to survive for the sake of physical existence.

• “First live then philosophize” Miletus
• SEEKING ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS WILL BE OUR ULTIMATE TASK BECAUSE AND IMPORTANT NATURE OF OURS IS THE DESIRE TO KNOW
• PREDECESSORS OF PHILOSOPHY

• Many claim philosophy started in the East.
• Influenced by Oriental teachings.
• Mythology developed because of the mystery of the world.
• Hesiod, Homer, and Orphic poets – their explanation of the world’s origin is metaphysical.
• Not philosophical because their stories are based on myth and not based on reason or rational argumentation.
• Okeanos (Hindu term, o-ki-ya-nah meaning “ring”) – a great river surrounding the earth-disc
• Similarities between Greek cosmogonical (world’s origin) stories and theogonical (origin of gods) myths of the great river-civilizations, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia and their neighbors.
• Thales – claims that the earth floats on water.
• Originated from river-civilizations then introduced to Greece and given a Hellenic form.
• Poet-theologians’ explanations about the world were of a mythological nature, hence, metaphysical, but not philosophical.

• [pic 1]
• First Western Philosophers

• Thales[pic 2]
• Anaximander
• Anaximenes

• On Ancient Philosophy

• Birth of Ancient Greek (6th Century BCE – 529 CE
• Heracles Ponticus claims “the discovery of Philosophy is to be attributed to Pythagoras, who in reply to someone who asked him which art he felt more at home with, said that he did not know any of kind of art: He was only a philosopher.
• Philosophy – from the Greek words Philos (friend or love) and Sophia (wisdom), so in etymology, Philosophy is friend/love of wisdom.

• 5 Different Periods

• Pre-Socratic Period

• cosmocentric” – world-centered
• “What is the principle of all things?”
• “Where did the universe come from?”

• The Period of the Sophists

• Made the human being the center of attention
• Socrates belongs to this period.

• The Platonic and Aristotelian Period

• Philosophy progressed significantly

• The Hellenestic Period

• Time of the “post-Aristotelians”
• Concerned with happiness (ethics) and knowledge (epistemology)
• 3 main philosophical schools emerged – Epicurianism, stoicism, and skepticism.

• Period of neo-Platonism

• Convergence of different ides and philosophies e.g. Middle Platonism, neo-Pythagoreanism and the School of Alexandria

• Characteristics of Ancient Greek Philosophy

1. Philosophy had a generic meaning as it started in the 6th century. It meant intellectual activity, and was associated with culture concerned with speech and writing. This made it similar with science, because of the questions it tried to answer. Soon after, however, science developed specific branches (mathematics, medicine, grammar), while philosophy gained branches dealing with specific objects of study, such as nature, man, and morals. These characteristics also apply to metaphysics. Metaphysics influences all the other branches, for it seeks the ultimate structure of the universe.
2. Plato’s philosophy – philosophy is “’that dear delight’; when the love of a modestly elusive Truth seems more glorious, incomparably, than the lust for the ways of the flesh…”. Basically, a search for wisdom”. Plato in Phaedrus takes wisdom to mean a kind of knowledge that is unlimited, corresponding to the infinite knowledge of God. In another sense it’s similar to metaphysics, which is asking about the totality of reality and probing into the world’s mysteries.
3. Aristotle’s case is similar to Plato’s – “Philosophical knowledge is characterized by totality; it is an inquiry about the whole expanse of reality, without excluding any part of it”. Like Plato, Aristotle characterizes philosophy in a way similar to the way metaphysics is understood.
4. The method of philosophy is “a purely rational explanation of the totality of reality”. Similar to metaphysics, philosophers are not expected to observe reality, but inquire into its first causes and ultimate principles. “The point of our present discussion is this: that all men suppose what is called Wisdom is to deal with the first causes and principle of things.” A philosopher does not describe a fact, but ascertains it relation to experience and get at its meaning and its worth.
5. Last characteristic of ancient philosophy is its end. The end is exclusively speculative or theoretical, contemplative, ore reflective, and thoughtful. Again, this characteristic applies to the understanding of metaphysics. In Aristotle’s view, philosophy is a free science, studied for no other purpose but for man’s own sake to seek for more knowledge.

• ON METAPHYSICS

• Meta(after/beyond) Physics(nature
• Etymology : When Aristotle dies , people entered his study and found a manuscript that was untitled

• Written after his work physics thus METAPHYSICS

• ONTOLOGY : the study of being/ same object as metaphysics
• Most basic and fundamental branch of philosophy
• “a core if philosophical knowledge that influences all the other philosophical branches”
• Plato uses his metaphysical construct called the “World of Forms/Ideas” as the basis for establishing validity of his epistemological,ethical,psychological and political arguments.
• “Philosophy is a hypothetical interpretation of the uknown , metaphysics is the study of the ‘ultimate reality of things’’’

• monists : contend that there is only one basic feature of the universe
• pluralists –more than one basic feature that accounts for our knowing the universe.

• CHARACTER OF METAPHYSICS DURING THE TIME OF THE ANCIENTS

• MONOIST

• Thales of Miletus – claims that everything comes from water, water is the source of all things and the earth floats on water not only is it the absolutely first cause but , it is also contained by everything, ultimate principle in which things lead back to it.
• Anaximander of Miletus – Apeiron a material sub, that cannot be known because it is boundless and infinite, no precise char. Material cause and divine principle of everything. Immortal and indestructible. Encompasses and governs all things

• Change necessarily happens due to necessity for all things are punished for the injustice done to others in “accordance w/ time” ANAXIMANDER

• ANAXIMENES – soul is air itself , personal level air preserves our unity while the world possesses the cosmic soul for air encompasses the whole world
• Heraclitus- Fire, claims there is no fundamental or permanent substance. What is permanent is the process called CHANGE. God is the unifying principle of all things
• Pythagoras - world is made of numbers
• Parmenides - being is the only path to acquire single continuous object.

• BEING IS ONE – no parts
• SINGLE – it is alone
• CONTINOUOS- no beginning and end
• No empty spaces, no motion , no change possible

• Zeno – paradoz of flying arrows

• PLURALISTS

• Anaxagoras- 1st principle is a univ mixture that inc. everything that is to exist. SEEDS/HOMEOMERIS . believes everything is found in everything else
• Empedocles- 4 prim sub. Fire , air , water , earth. 4 historical periods that follow one another. Combi of 4 elements bring about the existence of all these things. 2 forces love and hate . forces determine unity and sep of sub.
• Leucippus and Democritus – atom, empty space or the void.

• Metaphysicians only have one intention. They intend to form a hypothesis or and idea making everything we know or believe about the universe intelligible.

• PRE SOCRATIC THINKERS

•   Explain the nature of the world and its aspects , such as change, development and decay or dissolution based upon and starting with the natural elements

• SOPHIST THINKERS

• Emerged after the pre soc. Wise intenerant teachers who consider themselves citizens of no particular Greece state. They center on and emphazise the person
• Enter in philosophy marks the beginning of the humanist age in greek philo.
• “cared little for the cultivation and perfection of the soul”

• PROTAGORAS –

• “man is the measure of all things- which do not exist insofar as they do not exist
• more epistemological( of knowledge, truth and error)
• did not believe in wisdom of any kind.
• Wisdom for him was the ability to discern what is good and evil.
• Accepts the idea of truth relative to each individual

• GORGIAS

• “First: Nothing exists. Second: If anything existed, it cannot be known by man. Third : If it can be known, it cannot be transmitted and explained to others’’
• falsehood and truth mean nothing to him
• eliminates BEING
• what we tell others are simply words not reality.
• Cuts the link between our words and the realities our words are meant to express
• Word can be used to manipulate people although it has no word or content therefore he should give importance to RHETORIC

• SOCRATES

• PLATO his student used him as a mouth piece
• Concerned in determining the meaning of concepts of nature : friendship, love, etc
•  He was interested in the person
• “I know that I know nothing “
• encouraged the youth of Athens to discover the worth of their soul through knowledge.
• For him knowledge is identical to virtue and ignorance to vice

• PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

• Explained worlds nature diff.
• Abstract compared to predecessors
• Follow Parmenides who treated being as such
• Explain why being is”why” reality is instead of what .

• PLATO

• 2 worlds
• world of forms/ideas – real and true world, permanent
• sensible world – faxsimile, changing, poor copy of the ideal world.
• Ideal world is cause of whatever happens in sensible world
• Demiurge – agent that exists in both world, responsible in transmitting ideas from the wof to wos.

• ARISTOTLE

• “hylemorphic doctrine”
• everything is made up of matter and form
• matter has potentialiy and is itself potentiality
• to become greater than what u are now

• issue after Aristotle was whether or now happiness could be achieved

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