Metaphysics 101

By

Ricky Cobb

Philosophy 200

Professor Clay Railey

September 13, 2004

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Metaphysics 101

Thesis Statement:
Metaphysics is a philosophical system which attempts to explain everything
knowable (including knowledge).

I. Metaphysics: What’s it all about?

A. Definition of Metaphysics
B. Purpose of Metaphysics
II. The Concept and the Heart of the Matter
A. Plato’s Sunny Cave (Monism and Dualism)
B. What’s the Matter? (Form/Matter)
C. Break Time! (Off the Clock and Off the Wall)
D. We’re all Related (…In West Leibniz)
E. Relatively Special Einstein
F. Time Again, and Again, and Again…
G. Kant, Reason dissects Reason
III. The End… (Or is it?)
A. What now?
B. Conclusion
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Part I - Metaphysics: What’s it all about?

Metaphysics is that which is beyond physics. It is a philosophical system or

hierarchy which tries to define how stuff works. What’s it all about? That’s the question

philosophers ask and try to answer using metaphysics.

Back in ancient times, (no not when your parents lived) there were these deep-

thinking Greeks. These Greeks had plenty of time to think about everything and so

philosophy was important for them to try to explain life, the universe, and everything.

Part II - The Concept and the Heart of the Matter

Plato’s Sunny Cave (Monism and Dualism)

In Plato’s Republic, there is this great story of a cave. What’s so great about a cave

you ask? Well it’s not the cave itself, but rather what goes on inside this cave. Inside, there

are people – prisoners, [literally] bound to stare at a wall watching shadows of everything

in the cave cast by the firelight. These shadows they take to be the Real Truth because

they do not know any other reality. Plato goes on to explain if someone were taken out of

the cave he/she would see the sun and know the real truth of things. Then, upon returning

to the cave’s interior, he/she would be considered crazy by those in the cave that take the

shadows as ‘reality’ (Plato 192). This is considered a dualistic view of the world; there

exists relative knowledge and absolute knowledge. The opposite of this is Aristotle’s

(another ancient Greek) monistic worldview wherein all can be figured out by reasoning

(Aristotle 267).

What’s the Matter? (Form/Matter)

What are these shadows that we see? Is this word you’ve read real? Does it exist

only when you read it and look at it or when it is in your memory? No, it does not exist as

matter (phenomena is another word) on paper because it is not perceived. This is called
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percipi esse; to be perceived is to be (FOLDOP n.p.). It only becomes. That is, it exists

only when observed (much like the photon slit experiment in physics). The other

viewpoint is yes, it exists only as a Form (a.k.a. pure thought, concept, or a snapshot

being) that is exists permanently despite whatever might happen to the actual material

(physical) thing, (in this case the atoms of the paper or pixels on the computer screen).

Break Time! (Off the Clock and Off the Wall)

Now that we’ve established the actors (objects), let us establish the stage or

theatre in which they play – space and time. A long time later, there was this guy named

Newton. He was the one who was hit in the head with an apple and became famous for it.

(Well he really became famous for his mathematical ability including calculus and his

equations of physics and gravity but everyone remembers the apple).

Time and space to Newton are fixed measurable entities. If given a set of

coordinates to define a single point in space (and time), Newton would say that set would

always be the same spot (or time). His equations agree very well with reality. However,

not everyone agreed (Greene 27-28).

We’re all Related (…In West Leibniz)

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz said that space was only a way of distinguishing

between objects. He was a relationist; he believed that space was a way of relating to

objects (“But without the letters, the alphabet has no meaning…”) (Greene 30).

Relatively Special Einstein

Discounting an absolute space or time, Einstein said that everything is relative to

the observer but there is a way to compare with an object that is not moving – not just

through space but through time as well. He combined the concepts of space and time into

space-time and discovered equations which are remarkably accurate about reality – more
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so than Newton’s (Greene 39).

The synopsis of Special Relativity is this: Everyone carries with them a clock. Each

observer’s clock is the same as everyone else’s clock but the clocks need not necessarily

agree. The difference in time for these clocks is due to their speed (velocity) in space. The

faster an object moves the slower time goes. We usually don’t notice the tiny amount

which this occurs because we go at relatively slow speeds (compared to the speed of light

which Einstein considers constant at 670 million miles an hour) (Green 42). At an

astronomical scale however, things get pretty screwy with our conventional notions of

time and space.

Time Again, and Again, and Again…

Now we come good part. This part – the present. It’s the only part we can actually

observe. Where did the past go? In which direction and what manner? What is the nature

of Time itself? These are questions St. Augustine asked himself long ago (Augustine 423).

He noticed that our concept of the past is only a memory occurring in the present and our

notion of the future is just an imagining in the present, so that the present is the only time

that actually exists. If we live in the past or the future, we’re not really living. We might

have the potential to live but if we’re off center, tilted toward the not-now time then when

might we be? What time do we reside? (I speak of ‘we’ as not just Human Beings but as

our total experience).

All things have such potential. It is simply non-occurring action. I have the

potential (through quantum mechanics) to instantly reappear at some distant location by a

process known as quantum teleportation. Think of it as “Beam me up Scotty!” However

the odds of that happening are pretty low (infinitesimal). There are laws to the way the

world works and as the saying goes: “we must obey gravity – it’s the law!” Knowing the
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laws through experience we can estimate and eliminate the probabilities (potentialities) of

actions (just as a battery can be measured for its voltage and its work load, wattage,

estimated from the drain on its chemical power supply, to state how long it will last).

How long does time last? As soon as you’ve noticed a “moment” or labeled it, it

has already changed into another moment. They’re always changing, those pesky

unidentifiable moments. Time is change itself. Augustine would agree that time (i.e. “the

present”) is change:

For we measure the time interval itself from some beginning point to some end.

This is why a voice that has not yet ended cannot be measured, so that one could

say how long or how briefly it will continue. Nor can it be said to be equal to

another voice or single or double in comparison to it or anything like this. But when

it is ended, it is no longer. How, therefore, may it be measured? And yet we

measure times…(Augustine 433-434)

I consider time to be a differentiation of events (noticing of change) occurring in

the present (compared to our present memories of them). Now is different than now, and

even now. Each has changed. Even when something is not moving is space, there is

movement in time. We measure that time an object is at rest by the change in our

observation process. The time is the change of our thoughts (or the difference of those

thoughts) in that case. There is a consistency to the change of events but each is a form

change; moments are just moments changing. Since now is the only time we can work or

figure out what it all means, now is the time to start.

Kant, Reason dissects Reason

Start what? One might ask. Well, to look at reason itself. To find out how we

know what we know. German philosopher, Immanuel Kant took Plato’s dualistic world
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and Aristotle’s monistic world and provided a reasonable theory for reason itself.

Basically, he states, that the world exists in and of itself, but we can only know through

the filters of our perception, i.e. we can only intuit the real from the perceived. But in this

intuition the real can be known. Kant called this intuited knowledge, a priori, or

beforehand knowledge. It is a concept of structure in the mind which filters or channels

what is perceived into what is understood (Kant 840).

Part III - The End… (Or is it?)

What now?

Now you have a basic understanding of Metaphysics go out and read more of the

philosophers/scientists mentioned above as well as others that have made contributions to

the field of knowledge. Then know yourself and make your own contributions. Know how

your own mind operates and learn how the minds of others operate. Learning won’t do

any good if it doesn’t accomplish anything. Ask the questions and don’t be satisfied with

the first answers you get. Metaphysics is really a path to Truth, so be truthful! Read, study,

be aware of thought traps (especially those of your own making), and be productive!

Conclusion

We come to the conclusion that although the topic of metaphysics has progressed,

not everyone still agrees, or will agree on everything that occurs. Such relativity is built

into the laws of the universe and must be accounted for in any experiments. Taking such

measures against the probability of error will steer the light of the shadows in the cave

toward the light of the sun.

Works Cited

Aristotle, “Metaphysics.” Classics of Philosophy 2nd ed. Pojman, Louis P. Ed., New
York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 267-289.
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Augstine, “On Time and Eternity.” Classics of Philosophy 2nd ed. Pojman, Louis P. Ed.,
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 433-434.

FOLDOP, Free On Line Dictionary Of Philosophy. “esse est percipi.” 29 Oct, 2001,
SWIF. http://www.swif.uniba.it/lei/foldop/foldoc.cgi?esse+est+percipi ,
14 Sept, 2004.

Greene, Brian. The Fabric of the Cosmos. New York: Knopf, February 2004.

Kant, “Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics.” Classics of Philosophy 2nd ed. Pojman,
Louis P. Ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 840-841.

Plato, “Republic.” Classics of Philosophy 2nd ed. Pojman, Louis P. Ed., New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003, 192-197.