The word metaphysics designates from the understanding the world through pure intellect (through ontology) up to a supernatural view of the structures of the cosmos. We have differences in the understanding of metaphysics by classical, medieval and modern philosophers, in addition to a group of philosophers critical of metaphysics from the 20th century onwards. The first metaphysical studies were undertaken by Aristotle and mark the beginning of a long tradition of Western knowledge.
Read more: Empiricism - field of philosophy that defends the construction of knowledge through experience
Summary on metaphysics
- Aristotle began his studies in metaphysics.
- Aristotelian metaphysics seeks to understand the structures of the world through ontology.
- Augustine and Aquinas continued their studies of metaphysics in the Middle Ages.
- For Kant, metaphysics is the foundation of supersensible reality.
What is metaphysics?
Metaphysics is more than an area of study of philosophy, it it's a philosophical system
. It seeks to understand the world through certain ways, such as ontological or theological, but it always seeks an understanding of the supersensible reality. Therefore, in Eastern philosophy and even in popular vocabulary, metaphysics is associated with knowledge of the immaterial world and purely rational, often spiritual. At medieval philosophy, she also has this designation through the studies of Thomas Aquinas.Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
To the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, metaphysics takes the ontological path. It is a way of accessing a transcendental knowledge, that is, one that transcends materiality and the degrees of knowledge related to the material experience of the world. Therefore, Aristotle called his studies in this area "first philosophy", because is a philosophy that directly accesses knowledge without the intermediary of materiality.
Who created the word metaphysics was Andronicus of Rhodes, one of Aristotle's peripatetic disciples. Organizing the library of scrolls left by the master, Andronicus realized that all the cataloged writings ended up in “physics”. Only a group of writings left called “studies in first philosophy” by Aristotle himself.
Because these studies are located after physics in the library and because they extend beyond the physical world, the name metaphysics ended up fitting well. Metaphysics, with its general study of being, opens the way for all other sciences, which have their particular meanings..
The German Enlightenment Philosopher Immanuel Kant went further and designated as metaphysics a whole set of constitutive laws of reason beyond any element of the sensible or practical world.
Aristotle's video class on metaphysics
What is the object of study of metaphysics?
There is no single object of study in metaphysics if we take the whole history of philosophy. Aristotle was based on the study of being. Pure being, being as being. To go deeper, he wove a study on the origin of being itself, reaching, for example, a cosmological theory that states that there are four causes that give rise to all beings. The causes are: material, formal, efficient and final.
To the medieval, especially for Thomas Aquinas, metaphysics is the rational way to get-if bye, being this the object of metaphysical study. Before him, Augustine formulated the theory of enlightenment, which says that knowledge is a touch of divine enlightenment. With his theory, he also explains the question of good and evil based on the Christian view, but with a touch of rationality. For ImmanuelKant, the paths of metaphysical study pass through knowledge a priori, that is, the knowledge that does not pass through sensible reality, a posteriori.
Check out our podcast: Being, having and appearing: conflicts of human subjectivity
Who studies metaphysics?
- Aristotle
- Augustine
- Aquinas
- Immanuel Kant
critiques of metaphysics
Building on Immanuel Kant's (still metaphysical) criticism, a series of critiques of metaphysics (which also included critiques of modern rationalism) emerged throughout the nineteenth century. O positivism by the French philosopher Auguste Comte, for example, it was one of those critical currents.
the positivism of comte admits that true knowledge is that which starts from the scientific observation of the world and nature. Metaphysical speculations, therefore, comprise a worldview that should give way to the scientific view. He did not despise metaphysics, he just admitted that it is the beginning of the search for rational knowledge, but that search must give rise to a more scientific observation.
Arthur Schopenhauer, despite being critical of the rationalism, is not quite a critic of metaphysics per se. He criticizes Kant's overly rationalist position and proposes a metaphysics based on what he called truth, a kind of cosmic force that moves the Universe.
the german philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche he is also one of the critics of metaphysics, associating it with a movement of intellectual and philosophical decline that made the intellect human being to stop looking at the human being and material life (the only one that exists for Nietzsche) as possibilities for the composition of reality.
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PORPHYRIO, Francisco. "Metaphysics"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/metafisica.htm. Accessed on November 12, 2021.
