Questions tagged [metaphysics]
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the essence of things, of the fundamental nature of being and the world and the principles that organize the universe. Metaphysics is supposed to answer the question "What is the nature of reality?"
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Does Kant implicitly commit the paralogism of pure reason when saying that to have a representation it is necessary to accompany it with 'I think'?
In Caygill's Kant Dictionary entry of 'I Think' there is this part:
Kant further claims that 'I think' is the necessary vehicle/form/accompaniment of experience: to have a representation it is ...
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What can a person not categorize in the process of his knowledge acquisition?
When a subject learns about the world and gets experience as a result, he builds his own mental representations - thereby essentially differentiating the world (that is, dividing it into abstract ...
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Is necessary existence a property?
If existence is not a property then doesn't it follow that necessary existence is also not a property? If it is then why?
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How does one differentiate epistemological and ontological claims?
I'm taking an introductory philosophy course and I find it fascinating. I can't really figure out an assignment though because I'm a bit foggy on what the difference between ontological and ...
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Metaphysical theories for why physics has the structure it has
The laws of physics have an extremely rich structure. The more fundamental you go, the more complex it becomes (e.g. Quantum Mechanics is more complex (no pun) than Newtonian mechanics). This ...
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Why am I this particular human being?
Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But ...
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Does Multi-World Interpretation really eliminate randomness in quantum mechanics?
As I understood it, the Multi World Interpretation (MWI) was meant to avoid the problem of resorting to randomness, by replacing the random wavefunction collapse in Copenhagen Interpretation with ...
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Tautological Many Worlds?
this is my first question here so I hope I'm following the guidelines correctly. I recently found a relatively obscure physicist/philosopher who asserts that the concept of Many Worlds is ...
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How did ancient Greeks connect transcendence and rational approach to one gender(male)?
It seems to me as a modern human difficult to connect logic (may say rational approach), material world and something that stays beyond this reality (may say emotional or religious approach), ...
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Question about the difference between qualitative and quantitative reasoning
I've been reading what Wikipedia has to say about qualitative and quantitative reasoning and I had a question about the difference. Are qualitative properties always abstractions of quantitative ...
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How does Achille Varzi’s metaphysics avoid collapsing into Mark Heller’s Eliminativism
Achille Varzi is apparently a conventionalist about all kinds, natural and artifactual while being a mereological universalist who has a pretty permissive ontology. What keeps his position from ...
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Circularity in definition of Real
I'm having a hard time understanding the adjective 'real'.
In some sense, we get that x is real iff x is in reality. So to say that y is a real boy, is to say that y is a boy, and y is in the ...
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According to Aquinas, what is the relationship between the substantial form of a bodily being and its act of existing, ie. its esse?
Consider, for example, an existing bodily being. Because it is bodily, we know that it is composed of prime matter and substantial form. Also, because the bodily being is existing (not just made up in ...
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What do you call something that is not a substance in philosophy?
Is the mind a substance in dual aspect monism?
In philosophy, "substance" is like "atom", which is the ultimate
independent real existence not depending on other entities, is the
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Are laws separate “objects” or are they inextricably part of the universe?
This question came forth from a discussion I was having. Suppose that the universe is deterministic because of some laws. But those laws themselves exist for no reason.
Does this mean that the laws, ...
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What is the definition of real?
What is the definition of the word "real"? For example, we can all agree that Harry Potter and unicorns are not real, while Mount Everest and Mars are real. Some people even say ...
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Is physics in a way already inherently nonlocal?
Physical laws are mathematical constructs that define reality. However, given that they do define reality, we have a case where an abstract formalism defines reality in every corner of the world. Each ...
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Quid sit ego, what is the self?
From my little, torn, pouch of experiences, I present the following sentences, heard/read, it matters not.
My body
My brain
My mind
My soul
Suggests, ex mea sententia, that, the ego (self) is not an ...
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What is the difference between the “thing in itself” and noumena?
“Things in themselves” and noumena are similar in Kantian metaphysics (Critique of Pure Reason, mostly) and interchangeable much of the time. The phenomena/noumena divide is integral to Kantian ...
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What would be Gilbert Ryle's necessary and sufficient conditions for being a human being?
One of my students asked me this question and I can't answer it. I thought it was a great question. Any suggestions on an equally good answer?
(I'm not a trained philosopher, I'm a historian. I teach ...
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In what shape do opposites exist?
A common notion is that the opposite of “cold” is “warm” and that the opposite of “slow” is “fast”.
Would it be equally correct to say that the opposite of “cold” is “fast”?
How come that most people ...
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What is the relation between idealism and science?
My understanding of idealism is that it rests on the primacy of the mind and conscience over matter. The Encyclopædia Britannica provides the following "basic" forms of idealism:
The two ...
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What do philosophers think about the beauty?
When we see someone beautiful we understand what is beauty. The definition may not be absolute but it can be roughly defined. For example - symmetrical form may be considered beautiful. Fair color can ...
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Are information, matter and energy improper concepts?
In Proper and Improper concepts (1927) Carnap argued for the distinction between proper concepts (the ones that are explicitly defined)
”It is essential to a proper concept that for any object it is ...
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Does Hume propose that causes might actually just be explained by coincidence?
Does Hume propose that what people interpret as casual connections could instead be explained by coincidence?
I want to know if this is an accurate understanding.
Hume says something to the effect of:
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Are all things the physical form/properties they have?
Trying to answer the question: "What are the things?"
I noticed that different things have different (physical) forms and that equal things have equal forms.
But what if it was a wrong ...
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Is it implausible to claim consciousness is a fundamental?
The notion of fundamentality, as it is used in metaphysics, aims to
capture the idea that there is something basic or primitive in the
world. This metaphysical notion is related to the vernacular use ...
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Hume says we can't determine a causal connections between objects. Why separate the system into objects at all?
A summary of Hume's perspective is as follows:
When we reason about matters of fact to reach new conclusions, we use cause and effect: when a dropped ball hits the ground (observation), it bounces (...
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Omniscience leads to necessitarianism
You have probably seen these types of arguments before on incompatibility of omniscience and free will. The question is are these arguments valid and what can be a good refutation?
Let G= x is known ...
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Does the unobserved past exist in a super position
Does the unobserved past exist in a super position in the sense of quantum mechanics? Has anyone seen this question asked before? If the question is meaningful, what answer seems most likely. If the ...
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Why is there something instead of nothing?
A simple but fundamental question.
The "something" means the whole Universe (known and unknown), it could be represented as the reality version of the set of all sets, which is itself debated. It ...
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Is the design answer to fine-tuning sufficiently complete?
If the problem of "fine tuning for life" (SEP) is that the precise value of some constants (and laws) in physics seems necessary to the emergence of life in our universe but at the same time ...
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What is an object's properties?
What can we consider an object's properties, for example, when can we consider an object's properties as 'changing'? For example, if I move an object from my desk to my table, has it changed? If I ...
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Falsifiability of Assumptions
Karl Popper maintained that empirical sciences should be based on the principle of falsifiability rather than verifiability for no amount of observations can guarantee veracity but a single ...
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Does absolute eternality entail timelessness?
Assuming one is committed to the idea that an actual infinite amount of time can never pass, does eternality entail timelessness?
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What's the difference between noneism and abstractionism?
I know what noneists and abstractionists say the difference is, I just don't grasp the difference. Noneism and abstractionism are two approaches to objects like numbers, fictional character, ...
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Quality vs. Quantity
Suppose 2 hypothetical fruits A and B. A's mass is 10 g and B's mass is 15 g. In addition, A only contains vitamin A and B only contains vitamin B. Each vitamin A molecule weighs 200 picogram and each ...
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Are we lost in the details?
A hypothesis.
https://theworld.org/stories/2021-05-20/imagining-gaia-earth-one-great-living-organism
Simply put, the Gaia hypothesis says that Earth is a living system and uses similar mechanisms that ...
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Can we consider the multiverse as the capstone of the Copernican Revolution?
The Copernican Revolution was a major shift in our mindset as a species. No longer were we the special center of the universe. If we generalize this notion, we see it surface in many areas beyond ...
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Can any part of existence be considered as information?
Can any part of existence be considered as information? I was thinking about it and anything that exist literally can be thought as information, but is there an exception to this rule? Is nothingness ...
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Could Laplace's Demon be the universe itself?
Laplace proposed that a being that could know the state of the universe at one particular point in time and knowing all the laws governing that universe would be able to determine the past and future ...
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The Real Problem of Being [closed]
Suppose you come into existence as a human named Tom.
The Creator tells you the one and only rule of the universe: be who you choose to be.
This is fun. You design yourself, and you choose you hair ...
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What is the likelihood that human civilization is just a petri dish to an alien race? [closed]
Not to confuse with simulation theory, but how possible is it that we (humans) were placed/created on Earth by aliens to create an observable simulation of civilization?
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Do we live in a post-Meinong-versus-Russell/Quine world?
From a 2022 review of the collection Non-Being: New Essays on the Metaphysics of Non-existence:
This book argues, by omission, that we are in a post-Meinong-versus-Russell/Quine world. This is a ...
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Applicability of Mathematics
Suppose that an alien civilization exists, in a planet somehow similar to our own (oxygen-based, plants, animals), in an evolutionary stage similar to ours (large cities, advanced communications, near-...
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Can location be assigned to an entity, given a lack of length, depth, or width?
If one is to postulate an entity that has a complete or absolute lack of height, depth, and width, can such an entity be located anywhere? Or does attribution of location to an entity entail length, ...
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According to Kant, while thinking of empty concepts without intuitions, what do we synthesise?
(This will be my last question on this book, for those of you getting bored of my questions).
Very briefly I will describe the method of Transcendental Deduction (TD) in an over-simplistic manner, and ...
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It can be said that there exists that which can be hyperapproximatively thought or imagined, or even the "post-thought", "post-imagined"? [closed]
Continuation of the question -> meta-thought, meta-imagined and/or even the non-thought, the non-imagined?
As we know, in spirituality, someone says that all and everything is not just possible, ...
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Can findings in one science contradict those in another?
I'm new to philosophy and recently started reading some books on the field. I came across a statement that somehow I understood as saying the following propositions:
Truth is single and indivisible.
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Is there a One True Set Theory?
From the description of Category Theory in nlab:
Category theory is a structural approach to mathematics that can (through such methods as Lawvere's ETCS) provide foundations of mathematics and (...
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