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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How do philosophers answer the following question about a counterfactual notion of free will?
So let's assume that free will requires the ability to have done the opposite.
Suppose we abstract from the world (and from our mind) and can reproduce an event in the same conditions as given ...
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What is the anti-thesis of Existentialism?
Existentialism represents a turning away from systematic philosophy (with its emphasis on metaphysical absolutes and principles of rational certainty) and toward an emphasis on the concrete existence ...
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Is Continental philosophy a continuation of metaphysics, analytic philosophy a departure from it?
Would it be correct to affirm that what has been called Continental philosophy (existentialism: Kierkeggard, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, Sartre; phenomenology: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty; vitalism:...
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General Relativity as an equation of state?
So I prefer to interpret the theory of general relativity as an equation of state rather than an equation of mechanics.
There are others who prefer this well (padmanabhan's work centers around this ...
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What is the difference between metaphysics, supernaturalism, and idealism?
The answer (by Wayfarer) to a SE philosophy question illustrates something I have a difficulty with:
But this suggests that there is a metaphysical reality - a summum bonum or true good - that ...
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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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What is the correct level of plausibility one should have with God? [closed]
This part is confusing me for a bit and I’m having trouble finding a correct answer to it.
Say you are an atheist and are playing a poker game and you get dealt two straight Royal flushes. You ...
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How to give it's place to a new model of the [mater-life-thought] Totality?
I have a model of the [mater-life-thought] Totality I build for an IA thesis long time ago and I'm wondering how I can have it to find it's place among others known metaphysical systems ? That could ...
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Are there any empirical categories that do not have vague boundaries?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an article on vagueness that struck me as odd because it seems to assume that vagueness is a property of only certain kinds of propositions or predicates, ...
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Is partial symmetry one of the most fundamental concepts or laws of reality?
Brain is partially symmetric, planets are, most of the object that look symmetric, are actually partially symmetric. Is partial symmetry in some sense a fundamental concept of our mind or fundamental ...
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How does one test their credences of belief?
Suppose I feel that event A is more plausible than event B. How can I test, verify, or falsify this?
For example, suppose I have a belief that my partner is cheating on me. Suppose I have another ...
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Maudlin and Chomsky on Newton and the shift toward "unintellgible" science
My questions arise after listening to Chomsky and Tim Maudlin talk about Newton's theories.
Maudlin:
"it turns out that at this moment in history [now] the physicists have to a large extent ...
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Is it problematic to say that falsity has many values?
If a proposition is clear in the context and is indeterminate, then it is true that it is false (not true) since it is not true in the context. If the proposition would be true in the context, then it ...
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Is the Being and Event Series Worth Reading?
For those of you who have read Alain Badiou's Being and Event Series, does it seem like something worth reading? What is the synopsis of the series, and how does the trilogy differ from eachother?
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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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Within scholastics, how does animals' perception work, when compared to humans' apprehension of universals?
In the study of scholastic philosophy, I'm struggling with this question for a while:
It seems like dogs do know what dogs are. Aquinas states that animals have perception, capable of complex ...
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What does the phrase "predicated of" mean in the context of scholastic theology?
In Summa Theologica's article on "Whether God is altogether simple?" (and I believe in some other locations), Aquinas regularly uses the phrase "predicated of." For example:
The ...
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Can we reduce Wittgenstein's claims of human language being limited by some actual propositions about the limits of language?
Wittgenstein argued that there are limits to what language can do, and that our attempts to use language to describe the world can sometimes lead us into confusion and error. He believed that many ...
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Does the metaphysics of space and time mostly focus on the implication of general and special relativity, or are there ideas outside of science?
Does the metaphysics of space and time mostly focus on the implication of general and special relativity, or are there ideas outside of science? I know that the metaphysics of space and time is an ...
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Reference request for the analysis of the concept of "fact"
I am looking for books and papers that analyze the concept of "fact" in a philosophical way. That is, such texts might define what a fact is, talk about whether a fact is one kind of entity ...
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On what basis do we derive logic? [duplicate]
I find that using logic is purely pragmatic.We use many forms of logic to conclude various things about our "world" which is through epistemology.But yet, the fallacy I find here is that we ...
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Is Wittgenstien limiting philosophy?
In the Tractatus he says at 4.111 that “philosophy is not one of the natural sciences,” and at 4.112 “Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts.”
My question is: is Wittgenstien ...
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The Vienna Circle and metaphysics
The Vienna Circle opposed to metaphysics.
This is exposed in depth in Carnape's paper "'Überwindung der Metaphysik durch Logische Analyse der Sprache' in Erkenntnis, vol. 2, 1932 (English ...
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What does it mean for two properties of objects to be of the same class (or even identical)?
For people adhering to a realist ontology, what does it mean for you to say that a property p of an object of species a, and a property q of an object b are of the same class, or even that are ...
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Does omniscience necessarily entail omnipotence?
Suppose an existing being has its existence in danger, but miraculously becomes omniscient, could this being save its existence? Or is there any case where this is impossible?
My main motivation for ...
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What is existence?
If I wanted to define "existence" as "that which we encounter but cannot will", what philosophical tradition would that put me in? What authors took up that position or a similar ...
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The measurement and causality? [closed]
So my question is how do we establish that the measuring device causes the measurement (/collapse of the wave function)?
Is it as crude as my experimentalist friend told me so and won the best each ...
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Can the continuum hypothesis be settled in physics?
Can the continuum hypothesis be settled in physics? In a lecture mathematician Woodin considers the possibility:
Develops the mathematical physics of a mathematical understanding of
the physical ...
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What happens to statements like cause must precede effect for the mental events for this model?
My understanding is that for this model (epiphenomenalism (?)) is there isn't mental causation rather a kind of mapping between physical and mental events?
What happens to statements like cause must ...
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What is this idea of causality being articulated?
So I wanted to ask about the kind of causality when someone says something of the sort: "Communism made these people destroy their own society" or "I have a brilliant idea now I will ...
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Why do Western English-language philosophers(people*.) mostly present ideas(thoughts*) in a formal way? Linguistics, culture, thinking process, else?
By formal I mean, unable to understand an idea, because of mistakes or logical fallacies that don't truly reflect on the idea itself.
When someone talks to you, it's possible to look not at sentence ...
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What did Kant mean by “we must yet be in a position at least to think objects of experience as things in themselves”?
In “Critique of Pure Reason”, Bxxvi-Bxxvii, Kant wrote:
[...] all possible speculative knowledge of reason is limited to mere objects of experience. But our further contention must also be duly borne ...
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Is topology used outside of cosmology in philosophy?
It seems like topology is used to model spacetime, but outside of cosmology, it seems like topology has absolutely no use in philosophy. Is topology used to create models that relate to abstract and ...
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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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Describing the universe using symbols?
Now, for someone who wants to describe the universe using symbols.
Let's say I describe some phenomena up-to some approximation. I use some symbols to do this.
For example consider the ideal gas ...
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Is every feature of the universe logically necessary?
Is every feature of the universe logically necessary? For example, it would be logically necessary that no material object can exceed the speed of light. In other words, there is only one way for the ...
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Are moral intuitions considered equally valid as other intuitions?
In reading this article on SEP about intuition: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intuition/, the following statement is made:
"Consider the claim that a fully rational person does not believe ...
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Do things correspond to carvings of reality?
I have found many papers about “carving reality at its joints” but all of them discussed carving reality into kinds, supposed to cluster things, themselves always considered as already given. Though I ...
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Mathematical Platonism. Are numbers real?
Often heard this being asked: Are numbers real?
As an answer I offer my own analysis for what its worth.
The color green is considered real. As per scientists it's only distinguishing quality is that ...
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Are artworks created or discovered?
I am trying to deny Joseph Margolis' argument that pieces of art are not 'universals'. Particularly, I want to say that types (in the tokens-of-a-type sense) are essentially the same thing as ...
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What Contemporary Philosophers Believe in the Thing-in-Itself?
What modern and contemporary philosophers believe in Kant's concept of the thing-in-itself, that which is inaccessible to the human experience. To me, this idea does not hold up except in a trivial ...
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Strawson on Free Will: What are the most persuasive challenges to his position?
There are arguments against free will and moral responsibility which rely on strict causal determinism and/or determinism modified by quantum randomness. Criticisms of these views raise doubt as to ...
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Should a solipsist get life insurance?
What are the reasons for a convinced metaphysical solipsist to get life insurance?
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Is moral responsibility consistent from an ontological perspective of change?
Let a being be arbitrary, suppose that this being has the capacity to be morally responsible.
(EDIT 2) Regardless of group morality, but assume this being is in a moral environment with no moral ...
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Is the inverse gambler’s fallacy charge against the multiverse accurate?
A common reason for why people came up with the multiverse hypothesis was that they couldn’t fathom that a single universe, if it is all that exists, bears the constants necessary to eventually result ...
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Metaphysics and truth of propositions
Currently i'm reading about truth in metaphysics, but I'm getting stuck with the wording on the truth of propositions.
Are these pairs of propositions saying the same thing?
(a.1.) It is a possible ...
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Can humans symbolically manipulate X that describes themselves?
Consider the following premise:
Any statement regarding the physical world can be proven within the system of X (assume X to be something like Quantum Field Theory) by humans. One may argue that this ...
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Struggling to understand singluar things in Spinoza's Ethics Part II. How do they come to be?
Started reading Spinoza's Ethics 2 days ago, and it has gone well so far. However, even with its definition at the start of Book II, I struggle to understand Spinoza's use of singular things in ...
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Having trouble understanding "not possible without" vs. "necessary for"
At face value for me these don't mean the same thing but I'm struggling to find if they are separate concepts. Are there examples where they differ? Are they or aren't they separate ideas? I can't ...
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Does the Empiricist Aspect of Kantian Idealism Refute Mellasioux's Anti-Correlationist Argument in "After Finitude"?
In After Finitude by Quentin Mellasioux, QM argues that the existence of the Arche-fossil creates a conflict between the intersubjective objectivism of the current scientific paradigm and the ...
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