introduction - from Metaphysics (philosophy indefinitely)
Referred to as the ‘first philosophy’ or ‘wisdom’ by Aristotle, metaphysics is concerned with the nature of reality, the source of creation, the existence of the world outside the mind, how mind affects the physical body, the objective nature of things, and the existence of god. Metaphysics is an exploration of the real which seeks to answer two questions; what is there and what is it like…
Aristotle considered three main sections in metaphysics:
- Ontology or the philosophical study of being and existence including the nature of change which questions what entities exist and how such are grouped or subdivided.
- Natural theology, which involves the study of god, and includes the nature of religions also questioning creation and other related issues, and
- Universal science, the study of the first principles of logic and reasoning, which encompasses the criteria and principles of valid inference and demonstration including the structure of statements and arguments.
Plato's theory of forms:
[As regards] metaphysical views from Plato, we consider the object of what we know which transcends particulars, or the object of knowledge. Plato considers this as a form, an archetype that provides an ideal or model that other things will follow. Real entities of an immaterial sort. For example, god, the human soul; forums of love, justice, humanness, and equality of lengths. Then there are qualities (morals, values), species and kinds of things, and relationships. All these are objectively based moral ideals. Plato was a moral absolutist. He also considers mathematical forms in terms of relationships, numbers, and geometrical figures. Therefore there is a realm of things which renders this worlds particulars either similar or dissimilar. Or (according to Plato) particulars participate in these forms. A particular participates in something larger, an ideal, something more normative. Forms can be regarded as universal or eternal (unchanging) with each form here mentioned being ideal for a class of things (with respect to that class). Particulars are temporal (always changing)... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/platos-theory-of-forms/
Aristotle's metaphysics:
Aristotle’s conception of cause is more complex than ours, we consider an exerted force such as human action, as a cause (or power) he considers a series of causal factors with force as the efficient cause since cause has efficacy. He also considers a material cause since the material a thing is made from will result in a different consequence (what will result and what it can do). There is also the formal cause encompassing the essential nature of the kind of thing being produced. But this nature is due to the potential inherent in the thing which is the end orientation or a potential or potency resulting in a final cause (an end view or purpose)... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2019/07/27/aristotles-metaphysics/
Thales of Miletus:
Thales believed that there must be some basic material from which all things within the cosmos are formed and that this material must be able to move and change (form) and must be essential to existence, some substance present in all bodies and from which they all can be formed. This substance he considered was water, and this idea of reducing everything in the cosmos to one basic material is termed monism.
Thales concluded that water sustains all forms of life, is capable of motion, and has an ability to change its form (liquid, solid, or gas), therefore it must be present within the stages of transformation of all matter, he also deduced that the land floats on water and has emerged from such... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2019/11/14/thales-of-miletus/
Heraclitus:
Heraclitus considered the physical nature of the cosmos as being governed by a divine logos encompassing or interpreted as reason, a cosmic law causing everything to come into being and holding everything in balance, with opposite forces maintaining the balance. Like the Milesian philosophers before him, who considered all things to be made of a single substance (thus his views also encompassed monism), Heraclitus entertained the idea of a single process (logos)... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2019/12/10/heraclitus/
Parmenides:
Parmenides was influenced by Pythagoras‘ scientific reasoning, and employed such a deductive approach in his attempt to understand nature. Parmenides deduced that a thing either exists or does not exist therefore eliminating any logical contradictions. As opposed to Heraclitus (and his ‘state of flux’), Parmenides sees fundamental change as impossible, so a thing cannot come from nothing, it must have always had some form, and a permanent form does not change due to its permanence... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2019/12/20/parmenides/
Zeno of Elea:
Zeno was a student of Parmenides who defended the idea of a motionless and uniform reality apart from the varied changing world observed around us... https://philosophyindefinitely.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/zeno-of-elea/
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other Greek philosophers
Anaximenes of Miletus (c.585-528)
Xenophanes of Colophon (c.570-c.478 BCE)
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