the branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature or essential characteristics of being
Metaphysics


to take belongs instead to another branch of philosophy, epistemology. Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as the core of metaphysics, ontology often deals with questions concerning what entities exist or may be said to exist and how such entities may be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. Identity is a fundamental metaphysical issue. Metaphysicians investigating identity are tasked with the question
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Index of metaphysics articles


Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. Someone who studies metaphysics can be called either a "metaphysician" or a "metaphysicist". Absolute idealism -- Absolute time and space -- Abstract object -- Absurdism -- Accident (philosophy) -- Accidentalism (philosophy) -- Action theory (philosophy) Actualism -- Adolph Stöhr -- Alfred North Whitehead Alvin Plantinga -- Ananda Coomaraswamy
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Philosophy of self


The philosophy of self defines, among other things, the conditions of identity that make one subject of experience distinct from all others. Contemporary discussions on the nature of the self are not thereby discussions on the nature of personhood, or personal identity. The self is sometimes understood as a unified being essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency (or, at least, with the faculty of rational choice). Various theories on the metaphysical nature of the self have been proposed. Among them, the metaphysical nature of the
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Richard Leigh (poet)


the Metaphysicals. Though not all the poets of the school were aware of one another, most shared an interest in metaphysical matters. Metaphysical is used in the sense of being based on abstract reasoning and transcending physical matter of the laws of nature. As a branch of philosophy, metaphysics is concerned with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being and knowing. It is in these senses that it is used to denote the highly intellectualized 17th-century English poets of the school, who are known for subtlety
16198625
Ontology (information science)


known as metaphysics, which deals with questions like "what exists?" and "what is the nature of reality?". One of five traditional branches of philosophy, metaphysics is concerned with exploring existence through properties, entities and relations such as those between particulars and universals, intrinsic and extrinsic properties, or essence and existence. Metaphysics has been an ongoing topic of discussion since recorded history. Since the mid-1970s, researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have recognized that knowledge engineering is the key to building large
4931188
Outline of metaphysics


The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics: Metaphysics – traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: Metaphysics can be described as all of the following: Metaphysician (also, metaphysicist) – person who studies metaphysics. The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, e.g., existence,
14027287
History of evolutionary thought


Evolutionary thought, the conception that species change over time, has roots in antiquity – in the ideas of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Chinese as well as in medieval Islamic science. With the beginnings of modern biological taxonomy in the late 17th century, two opposed ideas influenced Western biological thinking: essentialism, the belief that every species has essential characteristics that are unalterable, a concept which had developed from medieval Aristotelian metaphysics, and that fit well with natural theology; and the development of the new anti-Aristotelian approach to
12312184
Metaphysics


the Self consisting of consciousness that leads all else. The word "Self-consciousness" in the Upanishads means the knowledge about the existence and nature of Brahman. It means the consciousness of our own real being, the primary reality. Self-consciousness means Self-knowledge, the knowledge of Prajna i.e. of Prana which is Brahman. According to the Upanishads the Atman or Paramatman is phenomenally unknowable; it is the object of realisation. The Atman is unknowable in its essential nature; it is unknowable in its essential nature because
19256101
Index of metaphysics articles


Metaphysical nihilism -- Metaphysical Society -- Metaphysical Society of America -- Metaphysics -- Michael Devitt -- Mind -- Mind-body dualism -- Monism -- Morris Lichtenstein -- Motion (physics) Nathan Salmon -- Natural law -- Naturalism (philosophy) -- Necessary and sufficient condition -- New Age -- New Thought -- Nihilism Nominalism -- Non-essentialism -- Noneism -- Notion (philosophy) -- Noumenon -- Object -- Objective idealism -- Objectivism (Ayn Rand) -- Ontological pluralism -- Ontology -- Open individualism Organicism -- Other -- P. F. Strawson -- Parmenides -- Participation (
19485579
Archibald Alexander Hodge


into contact with men, influencing them, and by doing so widening the influence of Christianity. Among the most influential was an article titled "Inspiration" that began a series in the "Presbyterian Review" which established the discipline of biblical theology as a historical science. This article was coauthored with B. B. Warfield in 1880. Hodge's distinguishing characteristic as a theologian was his power as a thinker. He had a mind of singular acuteness, and though never a professed student of metaphysics, he was essentially and by nature a
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Ousia


" nor "in" any subject, e.g., "this human" in particular, or "this ox". The genera in biology and other natural kinds are substances in a secondary sense, as universals, formally defined by the essential qualities of the primary substances; i.e., the individual members of those kinds. In Book IV of "Metaphysics" Aristotle explores the nature and attributes of being (ousia). Aristotle divides the things that there are, or "beings," into categories. Aristotle calls these substances
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Existence


categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what things or entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such things or entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. In the Western tradition of philosophy, the earliest known comprehensive treatments of the subject are from Plato's "Phaedo", "Republic", and "Statesman" and Aristotle's "Metaphysics",
9277396
Existentialism


views ignore metaphysics. Herbert Marcuse criticized Sartre's 1943 "Being and Nothingness" for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it hypostatizes specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory". In "Letter on Humanism", Martin Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism: Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is
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Cosmos


energy particles or radiation detected from space), and 'cosmic microwave background' (microwave radiation detectable from all directions in space). According to in Sir William Smith "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology" (1870, see book screenshot for full quote), Pythagoreans described the universe. Cosmology is a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of the universe, a theory or doctrine describing the natural order of the universe. The basic definition of Cosmology is the science of the origin and development of the
17824988
Apologetics


of their religion, among them are the Báb's "Seven Proofs" and Bahá'u'lláh's "Kitáb-i-Íqán". Later Bahá'í authors wrote prominent apologetic texts, such as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl's "The Brilliant Proof" and Udo Schaefer et al.'s "Making the Crooked Straight";. One of the earliest Buddhist apologetic texts is "The Questions of King Milinda", which deals with the Buddhist metaphysics such as the "no-self" nature of the individual and characteristics such as of wisdom
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Supernatural


adjective, the term can mean 'belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal' or 'more than what is natural or ordinary; unnaturally or extraordinarily great; abnormal, extraordinary'. Obsolete uses include 'of, relating to, or dealing with metaphysics'. As a noun, the term can mean 'a supernatural being', with a
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Metaphysical naturalism


is presumably not a religion. In one very important respect, however, it resembles religion: it can be said to perform the cognitive function of a religion. There is that range of deep human questions to which a religion typically provides an answer ... Like a typical religion, naturalism gives a set of answers to these and similar questions". Metaphysical naturalism is an approach to metaphysics or ontology, which deals with existence "per se". It should not be confused with methodological naturalism, which sees empiricism as the basis
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Bogusław Wolniewicz


the rationalist version and metaphysical pessimism in looking at man and society. He believed that philosophy was not science, but it wasn't cognitively idle either and did have characteristics of knowledge – that's because not every type of knowledge is of scientific nature, just like history or a legal case are not science either. Philosophy is an attempt to rationally capture those issues where the knowledge of scientific type does not apply. It fills the gaps in knowledge for the branches that science hadn't covered in a particular period of history,
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Metaphysics


peripheral" to metaphysics has varied over time and schools; however contemporary analytic philosophy as taught in USA and UK universities generally regards the above as "central" and the following as "applications" or "peripheral" topics; or in some cases as distinct subjects which have grown out of and depend upon metaphysics: Metaphysical cosmology is the branch of metaphysics that deals with the world as the totality of all phenomena in space and time. Historically, it formed a major part of the subject alongside Ontology, though its role is
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Metaphysics (Aristotle)


-mover God. The "Metaphysics" is considered to be one of the greatest philosophical works. Its influence on the Greeks, the Muslim philosophers, the scholastic philosophers and even writers such as Dante , was immense. It consists essentially of a criticism of Plato's theory of Forms which Aristotle had studied as Plato's pupil at the Academy in Athens, with a worldview rooted in an analysis of natural language, common sense, and the observations gathered from the natural sciences. The result is a synthesis of the naturalism of
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Humanistic naturalism


Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method, combined with the social and ethical values of humanism. Concepts of spirituality, intuition, and metaphysics are considered subjectively valuable only, primarily because they are unfalsifiable, and therefore can never progress beyond the realm of personal opinion. A boundary is not drawn between nature and what lies "beyond" nature; everything is regarded as a result of explainable processes within nature, with nothing lying outside
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Transactionalism


." Said another way, "trans-action attends to emergent becoming"—a kind of seeing together--"rather than substantive being (Tsoukas and Chia 2002)" among the actors involved. The transactional view of metaphysics—studying the nature of reality or what is real—deals with the inseparability of what is known and how humans inquire into what is known—both "knowing and the known". Since the age of Aristotle, humans have shifted from one paradigm or system of "logic" to another before a transactional metaphysics evolved with
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Values (Western philosophy)


group of theories (teleology and consequentialism) looks at the aims and outcomes of conduct, and the third group of theories (virtue ethics and fitting-attitude theory) looks at the concept of the person, their character and attitudes. Ontology (from the Greek "Ontos" meaning “being” or “that which is”) is that branch of metaphysics which deals with being, and, particularly in relation to value theory, with the “ontological categories” or plain categories of being. Zimmerman mentions G.E.Moore who pointed
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Nature (philosophy)


bound to fall into the same errors, but Metaphysicians themselves see differences between different approaches. Immanuel Kant for example, expressed the need for a Metaphysics in quite similar terms to Aristotle. As in Aristotelianism then, Kantianism claims that the human mind must itself have characteristics which are beyond nature, metaphysical, in some way. Specifically, Kant argued that the human mind comes ready-made with "a priori" programming, so to speak, which allows it to make sense of nature. Authors from Nietzsche to Richard Rorty have
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Metaphysics


Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. The word "metaphysics" comes from two Greek words that, together, literally mean "after or behind or among [the study of] the natural". It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle’s works into the treatise we now know by the name "
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Ontology


Ontology is the philosophical study of being. More broadly, it studies concepts that directly relate to being, in particular becoming, existence, reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology often deals with questions concerning what entities exist or may be said to exist and how such entities may be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. The compound word "ontology" ("study
2324677
Continuous revolution theory


producing the new socialist man. Marx was an inversion of Hegel, but Mao is in some ways almost an inversion of Marx, which ironically returns him to being rather close to Hegel. Continuous Revolution Theory is essentially idealistic rather than materialistic in nature, and the need for continuous revolution is not based on material conditions per se but rather on the fact that contradiction is metaphysically built into the nature of everything. Mao had the clear insight that revolutions can betray themselves and that the new ruling class that emerges in the aftermath of
10749479
Physics in the medieval Islamic world


absurdity involving the infinite; Al-Kindi asserted that the cosmos must have a temporal origin because traversing an infinite was impossible. One of the first commentaries of Aristotle's "Metaphysics" is by Al-Farabi. In "'The Aims of Aristotle's Metaphysics", Al-Farabi argues that metaphysics is not specific to natural beings, but at the same time, metaphysics is higher in universality than natural beings. One field in physics, optics, developed rapidly in this period. By the ninth century, there were
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Reality


Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent, as opposed to that which is merely imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, reality is the totality of the universe, known and unknown. Philosophical questions about the nature of reality or existence or being are considered under the rubric of ontology, which is a major branch of metaphysics in the Western philosophical tradition. Ontological questions also feature in diverse branches of philosophy, including
33495
Jorge J. E. Gracia


, Daniel Novotny (179-192), and Joseph Seifert (21-46) Foreword by Ralph McInerny (11-12). Gracia's Responses: "Metaphysics and Meta-Metaphysics: Response to Sanford," pp. 69–74 "Thomas, Thomists, and the Nature of Metaphysics: Response to Delfino," pp. 89–94 "Being as Being and the Tasks of Metaphysics: Response to Seifert," pp. 47–52 "Being qua Being, the Transcendentals, the Divine, and Metaphysics: Response to Sullivan
12866339
History of philosophy in Poland


contributions to psychology: it held that vision "per se" apprehends only colors and light while all else, particularly the distance and size of objects, is established by means of association and unconscious deduction. Witelo's concept of being was one rare in the Middle Ages, neither Augustinian as among conservatives nor Aristotelian as among progressives, but Neoplatonist. It was an emanationist concept that held radiation to be the prime characteristic of being, and ascribed to radiation the nature of light. This "metaphysic of light" inclined Witelo to
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Metaphysical naturalism


genetics, not as things that exist independently of these. Second, damage to the brain (regardless of how) should be of great concern. Third, death or destruction of one's brain cannot be survived, which is to say, all humans are mortal. Stace, however, believes that ecstatic mysticism calls into question the assumption that awareness is impossible without data processing. Metaphysical naturalists hold that reason is the refinement and improvement of naturally evolved faculties. The certitude of deductive logic remains unexplained by this essentially probabilistic view
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Earth science


Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical constitution of the Earth and its atmosphere. Earth science is the study of our planet's physical characteristics, from earthquakes to raindrops, and floods to fossils. Earth science can be considered to be a branch of planetary science, but with a much older history. Earth science encompasses four main branches of study, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere, each of
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God in Christianity


essence of God existing by itself and independently of the attributes or of the attributes being an additional characteristic of the Divine Being. They are essential qualities which exist permanently in his very Being and are co-existent with it. Any alteration in them would imply an alteration in the essential being of God. Hick suggests that when listing the attributes of God, the starting point should be his "self-existence" ("aseity") which implies that his eternal and unconditioned nature. Hick goes on to consider the following
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Nature (philosophy)


particular humans are is partly caused by something called "human nature" is an essential step towards Aristotle's teaching concerning causation, which became standard in all Western philosophy until the arrival of modern science. Whether it was intended or not, Aristotle's inquiries into this subject were long felt to have resolved the discussion about nature in favor of one solution. In this account, there are four different types of cause: The formal and final cause are an essential part of Aristotle's "Metaphysics" - his attempt to go beyond
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Franjo Marković


. On the other side, defending the metaphysics he was confronted with materialism and positivism, which reached Croatia at that period, and where he is followed by his disciple Albert Bazala. "Nothing valuable is produced by human labour without the vigorous, logical, aesthetic and ethic tendency, i.e. without philosophic tendency." In his lectures and writings he continued the metaphysical tradition of European school of thought, following essentially Herbart's formalism, which provides a compromise between the exactness of natural sciences and the metaphysical speculation, with an emphasis
3021854
S. Debono


intellective method, syllogism, syllogistic argumentation, sophistry (two ‘lessons’), the aim of rational thought, logical judgement, and the centrality of concepts to philosophy. In the section dealing with general metaphysics (only four ‘lessons’), Debono discusses the concepts of the structure (or organisation) of being and of truth as the correspondence to reality, causality, the inclinations of humans as contingent beings, and simple and composite being. Next, in the part dealing with special metaphysics (eleven ‘lessons’
2416274
Leonardo Polo


. This book expounds Polo's metaphysical method. Aristotle considered metaphysics the highest possible science because it deals with being, which is the ultimate constituent of everything. Modern metaphysicians, such as Descartes and Kant, understood that many of the pitfalls of metaphysics were caused by the lack of a rigorous method. Polo is sympathetic with Descartes and Kant about the need for such a method, but reflects that in metaphysics the method has to take us to grasp the being or existence of entities as such. If instead of that, our
10029474
Universal (metaphysics)


In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of which is green. These two chairs both share the quality of "chairness", as well as greenness or the quality of being green; in other words, they share a "universal". There are three major kinds of qualities or characteristics
13610466
Dudeism


such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman and humanists such as Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain. The Dudeist belief system is essentially a modernized form of Taoism stripped of all of its metaphysical and medical doctrines. Dudeism advocates and encourages the practice of "going with the flow", "being cool headed", and "taking it easy" in the face of life's difficulties, believing that this is the only way to live in harmony with our inner nature and the challenges of interacting with other people. It also aims
17458003
Psychosophy


revealed but from what is revealing" (Op. Cit.). Eleven years later, Ozan Lavoisier published "Psychosophy. Psycho-philosophical research on the nature of human beings", a thick volume in which he elaborates upon his method of knowledge in detail. He make clear that his discipline is not in search of news, but "perennial truths found in ancient traditions." It is essentially ""a philosophy that makes use of transcendental psychology in order to provide grounds for a metaphysics, ethics, esthetics,
764467
Voltaire


These, along with his "Letters on the English" mark the beginning of Voltaire's open criticism of intolerance and established religions. Voltaire and the Marquise also explored philosophy, particularly metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that deals with being and with what lies beyond the material realm, such as whether or not there is a God and whether people have souls. Voltaire and the Marquise analyzed the Bible and concluded that much of its content was dubious. Voltaire's critical views on religion are reflected in his belief in separation of church
14049472
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals


like space, time, and matter. Similarly, ethics contains an empirical part, which deals with the question of what—given the contingencies of human nature—tends to promote human welfare, and a non-empirical part, which is concerned with an "a priori" investigation into the nature and substance of morality. Because it is "a priori" Kant calls this latter, non-empirical part of ethics “metaphysics of morals.” It corresponds to the non-empirical part of physics, which Kant calls
8905114
Metaphysics


addressed as a part of natural philosophy. Originally, the term "science" (Latin "scientia") simply meant "knowledge". The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment, unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from other branches of philosophy. Science and philosophy have been considered separated disciplines ever since. Thereafter, metaphysics denoted philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into
19256066
Thomism


Thomism, the metaphysics of Lublin Thomism places priority on existence (as opposed to essence), making it an existential Thomism that demonstrates consonance with the Thomism of Étienne Gilson. The phenomenological concerns of the Lublin school are not metaphysical in nature as this would constitute idealism. Rather, they are considerations which are brought into relation with central positions of the school, such as when dealing with modern science, its epistemological value, and its relation to metaphysics. Analytical Thomism described by John Haldane, its key proponent, as "a
10377672
Ugo Betti


the library of the Ministry of Justice. Altogether he wrote 27 plays, the most highly regarded written in the final period of his career, from 1940 until his death. His works explore the nature of evil, the existential guilt experienced by his protagonists, and the theme of redemption. Sometimes referred to as "the Italian Kafka", the criminal investigation is a characteristic motif in his plays. In "The Inquiry", the procedure moves gradually from the realistic to the metaphysical level, without it ever being clearly revealed
13912299
Jean-Paul Sartre


"Being and Nothingness" for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it hypostatizes specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory." In "Letter on Humanism", Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism: Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking "existentia" and "essentia" according to their
16491230
Animal symbolicum


Animal symbolicum ("symbol-making" or "symbolizing animal") is a definition for humans proposed by the German neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer. The tradition since Aristotle has defined a human being as "animal rationale" (a rational animal). However, Cassirer claimed that man's outstanding characteristic is not in his metaphysical or physical nature, but rather in his work. Humanity cannot be known directly, but has to be known through the analysis of the symbolic universe that man has created historically. Thus man
20309587
Félix Ravaisson-Mollien


and the Peripatetics, but also develops from them a modern philosophical system. In 1838 he received his doctorate, his thesis entitled "De l'habitude" ("On Habit"), which was to become a classic text (a metaphysical 'poem' on nature in general apprehended through an intuitive analysis of acquired habit as a particular manifestation of its essential being, much admired by Bergson and Heidegger), and became professor of philosophy at Rennes. From 1840 he was inspector-general of public libraries, and in 1860 became
9405416
Nature (philosophy)


Nature has two inter-related meanings in philosophy. On the one hand, it means the set of all things which are natural, or subject to the normal working of the laws of nature. On the other hand, it means the essential properties and causes of individual things. How to understand the meaning and significance of nature has been a consistent theme of discussion within the history of Western Civilization, in the philosophical fields of metaphysics and epistemology, as well as in theology and science. The study of natural things and
14262615
Introduction to Metaphysics (Heidegger)


How does it stand with Being?" This is to be answered through an analysis of Greek poetry, the etymology of the word being and of the answers given by philosophers such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, Aristotle, and Immanuel Kant. To Heidegger, this question is not purely an academic endeavour, for metaphysics grounds an age, by giving "that age the basis upon which it is essentially formed". The question thus inherently implicates the totality of human Dasein, and is asked so as to "restore the historical Dasein
14425858
Metaphysical terms in the works of René Guénon


Metaphysical terms in René Guénon's works contains the definition of some metaphysical terms used in René Guénon's writings. In his metaphysical writings, René Guénon has stated precise definitions concerning key terms in metaphysics. This article summarizes some of them. Guénon's writings make use of words and terms, of fundamental signification, which receive a precise definition throughout his books. These terms and words, although receiving a usual meaning and being used in many branches of human sciences, have, according to René Guénon, lost substantially their original signification
17705965
Metaphysics (Aristotle)


Metaphysics (Greek: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά; Latin: "Metaphysica") is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being," or being insofar as it is being. It examines what can be asserted about any being insofar as it is and not because of any special qualities it has. Also covered are different kinds of causation, form and matter, the existence of mathematical objects, and a prime
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Metaphysical naturalism


, provide no evidence for supernatural beings or deities. According to metaphysical naturalism, if nature is all there is, just as natural cosmological processes lead to the Big Bang and there were once no planets or life, the formation of the Solar System and abiogenesis arose spontaneously from natural causes. Naturalists reason about "how", not "if" evolution happened. They maintain that humanity's existence is not by intelligent design but rather a natural process of emergence. With the protoplanetary disk creating planetary bodies, including the Sun and
6896490
Metaphysics


(Tao). Another philosophical school which arose around this time was the School of Naturalists which saw the ultimate metaphysical principle as the Taiji, the "supreme polarity" composed of the forces of Ying and Yang which were always in a state of change seeking balance. Another concern of Chinese metaphysics, especially Taoism, is the relationship and nature of Being and non-Being (you 有 and wu 無). The Taoists held that the ultimate, the Tao, was also non-being or no-presence. Other
19256089
Idealism


or the knowable to our immediate subjective experience. Objective idealists make claims about a transempirical world, but simply deny that this world is essentially divorced from or ontologically prior to the mental. Thus, Plato and Gottfried Leibniz affirm an objective and knowable reality transcending our subjective awareness—a rejection of epistemological idealism—but propose that this reality is grounded in ideal entities, a form of metaphysical idealism. Nor do all metaphysical idealists agree on the nature of the ideal; for Plato, the fundamental entities were non-mental abstract forms
15518845
Minimalism


of letting the flower express itself. People cut off the branches, leaves and blossoms from the plants and only retain the essential part of the plant. This conveys the idea of essential quality and innate character in nature. However, far from being just a spatial concept, Ma is present in all aspects of Japanese daily life, as it applies to time as well as to daily tasks. The Japanese minimalist architect Tadao Ando conveys the Japanese traditional spirit and his own perception of nature in his works. His design concepts are
739217
Outline of philosophy


branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. Metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: "What is ultimately there?" and, "What is it like?" History of philosophy – study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include (but are not limited to): How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what
20674582
Philosophical poets


A philosophical poet is an author or scholar who employs poetic devices, styles, or forms to explore subjects common to the field of philosophy. Their writing often addresses questions related to the meaning of life, the nature of being (ontology), theories of knowledge and knowing (epistemology), principles of beauty (aesthetics), first principles of things (metaphysics) or the existence of God. Some may make broad philosophical inquires and engage with diverse philosophical topics throughout their poetry, while others may concentrate within one branch of
16904398
Kantian ethics


behavior, rather than presenting unattainable universal laws. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche criticised all contemporary moral systems, with a special focus on Christian and Kantian ethics. He argued that all modern ethical systems share two problematic characteristics: first, they make a metaphysical claim about the nature of humanity, which must be accepted for the system to have any normative force; and second, the system benefits the interests of certain people, often over those of others. Although Nietzsche's primary objection is not that metaphysical claims about humanity are untenable (he
16770633
Extension (metaphysics)


my hand or staff into what is outside or not? It would be paradoxical [given our normal assumptions about the nature of space] not to be able to extend it.” René Descartes defined extension as the property of existing in more than one dimension, a property that was later followed up in Grassmann's n-dimensional algebra. For Descartes, the primary characteristic of matter is extension ("res extensa"), just as the primary characteristic of mind is thought ("res cogitans"). This can
17994108
Pure Theory of Law


contemporary society. Kelsen's final chapter, Chapter Eight, deals with the subject of interpretation in at least three of its most important aspects. First, Kelsen discusses the nature and methodology of the interpretation of the law. Second, he discusses interpretation as an act of cognition and of voluntary will. Third, he discusses interpretation as it is to be understood as part of the science of law, as Kelsen has defined it as being 'purified' from the undue influences of politics, morals, and metaphysics. Kelsen attempted
342364
Feminist metaphysics


Beauvoir, can be considered feminist metaphysical critique. De Beauvoir does not deny that some people are born with female body parts, but that those body parts need not imply how one is socially situated. Yet for many societies being in possession of those body parts prescribes social roles, norms, and activities, and the differences are said to be necessary, because they are natural. Since de Beauvoir many feminists have presented the view that social hierarchies are perpetuated by the fallacy that they are metaphysically "natural". In fact,
14742795
Law of three stages


Men and children failed to discover the natural causes of various phenomena and hence attributed them to a supernatural or divine power. Comte broke this stage into 3 sub-stages: (2) The Metaphysical stage is the extension of the theological stage. Metaphysical stage refers to explanation by impersonal abstract concepts. People often tried to believe that God is an abstract being. They believe that an abstract power or force guides and determines events in the world. Metaphysical thinking discards belief in a concrete God. The nature of inquiry was legal
14975854
Non-essentialism


Often synonymous to anti-foundationalism, non-essentialism in philosophy is the non-belief in an essence (from Latin "esse") of any given thing, idea, or metaphysical entity (e.g. God). Non-essentialism might also be defined cataphatically as the belief that for any entity, there are no specific traits or ground of being which entities of that kind must possess in order to be considered "that entity." Non-essentialism is not restricted to simple philosophical speculation. It is also found in
15425633
Maximilian Balzan


track and roams, almost freely, into uncommon spheres of thought. The work is composed of an introduction and (in the Scholastic style) three ‘Questions’. All of these four sections are further divided into ‘Disputations’. In the introduction, Balzan explains the principles of physics (Disputation 1), and the principles of matter (Disp. 2). The first part (Question I) deals with metaphysics. It has an introduction on the nature of metaphysics, and two further sections (also called ‘
9247211
Natural philosophy


that to be a physicist, one must restrain one's skepticism enough to trust one's senses, or else rely on anti-realism. René Descartes' metaphysical system of mind–body dualism describes two kinds of substance: matter and mind. According to this system, everything that is "matter" is deterministic and natural—and so belongs to natural philosophy—and everything that is "mind" is volitional and non-natural, and falls outside the domain of philosophy of nature. Major branches of natural philosophy include
10818549
History of psychology


political reform movements and egalitarian principles (see, e.g., Shapin, 1975; but also see van Wyhe, 2004). Phrenology soon spread to America as well, where itinerant practical phrenologists assessed the mental well-being of willing customers (see Sokal, 2001). Until the middle of the 19th century, psychology was widely regarded as a branch of philosophy. Whether it could become an independent scientific discipline was questioned already earlier on: Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) declared in his "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science" (
18120166
Donald Cary Williams


's skepticism about induction. For Williams, ontology is the study of the categories of being. The subject matter of ontology is traditionally examined using an analytic mode of inquiry. An analysis of some X is in terms of X’s parts, whatever X might be. Analysis gets us the nature of X. Analysis in this sense is the classic decompositional sense, giving explanatory priority to parts over wholes. Analytic ontology is one branch of metaphysics. A main issue in analytic ontology is the distinction between object and property. An object
8721330
Romantic medicine


metaphysical to ‘just’ a manifestation of the material, essentially thereby ignoring that this did not at all account for life. On the other side, a part of the ‘Old School’, drawing from the Hippocratic humoral theory (involving non-mechanical, etheric concepts), sought to emphasize the non-physical or vital aspect of nature, which somehow existed above and outside of nature and directed its activities. The Romantic scientists and philosophers rejected both reductionist mechano-materialism (material natural science) and conflationist mystical-
11880693
Carnap Papers


published works and unpublished manuscripts. Much of the content of the Rudolf Carnap papers is available electronically and searchable through the finding aid through the archives. His work on metaphysics being essentially a question of semantics is still cited and have been further expanded by other scholars. His papers document his being considered a major contributor on the question of metaphysics. He was also a member of the Vienna Circle. The papers were donated by Carnap's daughter Hanna Carnap-Thost in 1974. The collection is used by those researching personal information and
9298191
Buddha-nature


buddha nature were the same pure support for all phenomena. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the Yogacara theory became associated with a substantialist non-dual metaphysics which saw buddha nature as an eternal ground. This idea was promoted by figures like Fazang and Ratnamati. In contrast with the Chinese Yogacara view, the Chinese Madhyamaka scholar Jizang (549–623 CE) sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term as a metaphysical reality and saw buddha nature as being synonymous with terms like "tathata," "dharmadhatu," "ekayana
12223648
Dynamism (metaphysics)


Dynamism is a general name for a group of philosophical views concerning the nature of matter. However different they may be in other respects, all these views agree in making matter consist essentially of simple and indivisible units, substances, or forces. Dynamism is sometimes used to denote systems that admit not only matter and extension, but also determinations, tendencies, and forces intrinsic and essential to matter. More properly, however, it means exclusive systems that do away with the dualism of matter and force by reducing the former to the
16713926
Thomism


largely followed Aristotelian terminology and metaphysics. He wrote comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle, and respectfully referred to him simply as "the Philosopher". He also adhered to some neoplatonic principles, for example that "it is absolutely true that there is first something which is essentially being and essentially good, which we call God, ... [and that] everything can be called good and a being, inasmuch as it "participates" in it by way of a certain assimilation..." With the decree "Postquam sanctissimus" of 27 July
10377607
Metaphysical naturalism


Metaphysical naturalism (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism, scientific materialism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by the natural sciences. Methodological naturalism is a philosophical basis for science, for which metaphysical naturalism provides only one possible ontological foundation. Broadly, the corresponding theological perspective is religious naturalism or spiritual naturalism. More specifically, metaphysical naturalism rejects the supernatural concepts and explanations that are part of many religions. According to Steven Schafersman, geologist
6896479
Ṛta


according to the ""Dharma" of "Ṛta"". "Dharma", then, was originally conceived of as a "finite or particularized manifestation of "Ṛta" inasmuch as it represents that aspect of the universal Order which specifically concerns the mundane natural, religious, social and moral spheres as expressed in ritualistic regulations, public laws, moral principles and laws of nature". Though originally understood as a subordinate component of the essentially metaphysical concept of "Ṛta", "Dharma" eventually grew to overshadow "Ṛta
12799450
Moritz Schlick


his fellow Circlists by including ethics as a viable branch of philosophy. In his 1932-33 contribution to "Erkenntnis", "Positivism and Realism", Schlick offered one of the most illuminating definitions of positivism as every view "which denies the possibility of metaphysics" (Schlick [1932-1933], p. 260). Accordingly he defined metaphysics as the doctrine of “true being”, “thing in itself” or “transcendental being”, a doctrine which obviously "presupposes that a non-true, lesser
171496
Mou Zongsan


floating” because Heidegger’s thought does not recognize any transcendental reality ("chaoyue de shiti") but focus on the immanent metaphysics ("neizai xingershangxue") to develop his fundamental ontology. “True metaphysics” is “transcendent.” In the eyes of Mou Zongsan, since the immanent metaphysics merely focuses on the problem of the meaning of phenomenal beings, it fails to deal with Kant’s transcendental concepts of freedom, immortality, and God. Mou also thinks Heidegger’s philosophy is too heroic and romantic and thereby fails
5844710
Jorge J. E. Gracia


has dealt with such topics as the relation of philosophy to its history, the role of value judgments in historical accounts, the value of the history of philosophy for philosophy, the nature and role of texts and their interpretation in the history of philosophy, historiographical method, and the stages of development and progress of philosophical ideas. His book on the historiography of philosophy is the most comprehensive study of this topic in English. Gracia has published many works in the area of metaphysics. He has devoted extensive time dealing with the metaphysical
12866299
Ontotheology


(cosmotheological) discussion. Consistently with Kant's definition, philosophical and theological writers sometimes use the words "ontotheology" or "ontotheological" to refer to the metaphysical or theological views characteristic of many rationalist philosophers. Heidegger, discussed below, later argued for a broader definition of the word ontotheology. For Martin Heidegger, ontotheology took on quite a different meaning; for him, ontotheology is fundamentally the same as all metaphysics of presence. This he argues in "Being and Time", his later essay on "The End of
21607576
Charles Clough (artist)


excerpted here: "My subject is a web of metaphysical categories including: 1. Unity: wholeness, integrity, fragmentation, connectedness, and cosmic parameters. 2. Identity: similarities and differences, sums of distinguishing characteristics, units of consciousness and processes of projection, introjection, and transference. 3. Freedom: the fixed limits of nature, the shifting limits of society, the free exchange of ideas, and the boundless imagination. 4. Creation: the process of nature as a metaphor for thought and action and the
4743298
Liberal naturalism


Liberal naturalism is a heterodox form of metaphysical naturalism that lies in the conceptual space between scientific (or reductive) naturalism and supernaturalism. It allows that one can respect the explanations and results of the successful sciences without supposing that the sciences are our only resource for understanding humanity and our dealings with the world and each other. The term was introduced in 2004 by Mario De Caro & David Macarthur and, independently, by Gregg Rosenberg. This form of naturalism has been ascribed to Immanuel Kant. For a liberal naturalist many things in
14780089
Essentialism


alter its essential characteristics. The fourth is inductive potential (Birnbaum, Deeb, Segall, Ben-Aliyahu & Diesendruck, 2010). This suggests that entities may share common features but are essentially different. However similar two beings may be, their characteristics will be at most analogous, differing most importantly in essences. The implications of psychological essentialism are numerous. Prejudiced individuals have been found to endorse exceptionally essential ways of thinking, suggesting that essentialism may perpetuate exclusion among social groups (Morton, Hornsey & Postmes, 2009).
3656064
Cytotaxonomy


Cytotaxonomy is the branch of biology dealing with the relationships and classification of organisms using comparative studies of chromosomes during meiosis. Cytotaxonomy is branch of taxonomy,which uses the characteristics of cellular structures,such as somatic chromosome to classify organism.Improvement in the cytological techniques permit chromosomal studies.The Study of primate chromosome is another very active field,which provide very much information on relationships(chiarelli,1996). The number, structure, and behaviour of chromosomes is of great value in taxonomy, with chromosome number being the most widely used and quoted character
1405775
Al-Farabi


absolute being. Al-Kindi's view was, however, a common misconception regarding Greek philosophy amongst Muslim intellectuals at the time, and it was for this reason that Avicenna remarked that he did not understand Aristotle's "Metaphysics" properly until he had read a prolegomenon written by al-Farabi. Al-Farabi's cosmology is essentially based upon three pillars: Aristotelian metaphysics of causation, highly developed Plotinian emanational cosmology and the Ptolemaic astronomy. In his model, the universe is viewed as a number of concentric circles; the
9507028
Logic


problem of complexity classes—when is a problem efficiently solvable?—and the classification of degrees of unsolvability. Philosophical logic deals with formal descriptions of ordinary, non-specialist ("natural") language, that is strictly only about the arguments within philosophy's other branches. Most philosophers assume that the bulk of everyday reasoning can be captured in logic if a method or methods to translate ordinary language into that logic can be found. Philosophical logic is essentially a continuation of the traditional discipline called "logic" before the invention of mathematical logic
16164316
Philosophy


became a formal science. Sub-fields include mathematical logic, philosophical logic, Modal logic, computational logic and non-classical logics. A major question in the philosophy of mathematics is whether mathematical entities are objective and discovered, called mathematical realism, or invented, called mathematical antirealism. This branch explores the foundations, methods, history, implications and purpose of science. Many of its sub-divisions correspond to a specific branch of science. For example, philosophy of biology deals specifically with the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical issues
18002431
Al-Kindi


with him on this issue, by saying that metaphysics is actually concerned with being qua being, and as such, the nature of God is purely incidental. Central to al-Kindi's understanding of metaphysics is God's absolute oneness, which he considers an attribute uniquely associated with God (and therefore not shared with anything else). By this he means that while we may think of any existent thing as being "one", it is in fact both "one" and many". For example, he says
484371
Metaphysical naturalism


17th and 18th centuries. In this period, some metaphysical naturalists adhered to a distinct doctrine, materialism, which became the dominant category of metaphysical naturalism widely defended until the end of the 19th century. Immanuel Kant rejected (reductionist) materialist positions in metaphysics, but he was not hostile to naturalism. His transcendental philosophy is considered to be a form of liberal naturalism. In late modern philosophy, "Naturphilosophie", a form of natural philosophy, was developed by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel as an
6896498
Nature–culture divide


Instead of using such a contrasting approach, more modern anthropologists see Neo-Darwinism as an outline for culture, therefore nature is essentially guiding how culture develops. When looking at adaptations. anthropologists such as Daniel Nettle believe that behavior associated with cultural groups is a development of genetic difference between groups. Essentially, he states that animals choose their mates based on their environment, which is shaped by directly by culture. More importantly, the adaptations seen in nature are a result of evoked nature, which is defined as cultural characteristics which
4329953
Conns Creek Branch


Seddonville Branch trains took the wagons between Waimangaroa and Westport. The Denniston Incline closed on 16 August 1967, and much of the Conns Creek Branch subsequently closed in November 1967. A one kilometre long portion to a location known as East Backshunt (essentially a long siding from the Waimangaroa yard) was retained to receive coal carried by truck from the Denniston plateau. This operated for only a short time before being closed and the track lifted. Although remnants of closed railways deteriorate and disappear over time due to natural and human activity,
18903697
Metaphysical naturalism


morally entails ontological naturalism". as well as the similarly controversial assertion: "I maintain that the practice or adoption of methodological naturalism entails a logical and moral belief in ontological naturalism, so they are not logically decoupled." On the other hand, Scott argues: Contemporary naturalists possess a wide diversity of beliefs within metaphysical naturalism. Most metaphysical naturalists have adopted some form of materialism or physicalism. Metaphysical naturalists argue that the scientific facts and theories that we have to explain the origins of the universe, prior to the Big Bang
6896489
Anti-foundationalism


as Platonic essentialism, preferring to stress the contingent nature of human practices. Anti-foundationalists oppose metaphysical methods. Moral and ethical anti-foundationalists are often criticized for moral relativism, but anti-foundationalists often dispute this charge, offering alternative methods of moral thought that they claim do not require foundations. Thus while Charles Taylor accused Foucault of having "no order of human life, or way we are, or human nature, that one can appeal to in order to judge or evaluate between ways of life", Foucault nevertheless
15966758
Bildung


him and by his inner existence, using all the possibilities of his receptiveness; he must then reshape that material with all the energies of his own activity and appropriate it to himself so as to create an interaction between his own personality and nature in a most general, active and harmonious form".Most explicitly in Hegel's writings, the "Bildung" tradition rejects the pre-Kantian metaphysics of being for a post-Kantian metaphysics of experience that rejects universal narratives. Much of Hegel's writings were about the nature of education
12240199
Window


windows terms officially used in EU Member States. The main terms are: The United States NFRC Window Label lists the following terms: The European harmonised standard hEN 14351-1, which deals with doors and windows, defines 23 characteristics (divided into "essential" and "non "essential". Two other, preliminary European Norms that are under development deal with internal pedestrian doors (prEN 14351-2), smoke and fire resisting doors, and openable windows (prEN 16034). Windows can be a significant source of
4761343
Maximilian Balzan


Questions’, though they are clearly ‘Disputations’) dealing with two minor aspects of metaphysics. The second part of Balzan’s work (Question II) explores nature and art, which in itself is quite exceptional for any Scholastic. In Dispute I, he examines the relationship between nature and art; in Dispute II, the natural causes in general; and in Dispute III, the four Aristotelian causes in particular. The third part of the work (Question III) goes into the concepts of movement and rest. Balzan
9247212
Being in itself


Dasein is "itself" by virtue of its essential "relation to" Being in general." Heidegger recognized the dangers inherent to talking about Being in general and particular beings, and thus devoted space in "Being and Time" and the "Introduction to Metaphysics" to an explication of the differences; often noted by translators who distinguish Being (Sein), from "a" being (das Seiende). His attention to the complication is helpful for those who are looking for detailed explanation, but rarely clears the air
19729476
Shaykhism


in essential being, its manifest aspect has now entered into limited being. When God poured down from the clouds of Will on the barren earth, he thereby sent down this water and it mixed with the fallow soil. In the garden of the heaven known as as-Saqurah, the Tree of Eternity arose, and the Holy Spirit or Universal Intellect, the first branch that grew upon it, is the first creation among the worlds. This notion of beings with both divine and ephemeral natures presages a similar doctrine of the
10178059
Metaphysical naturalism


, an advocacy group opposing creationism in public schools, the progressive adoption of methodological naturalism—and later of metaphysical naturalism—followed the advances of science and the increase of its explanatory power. These advances also caused the diffusion of positions associated with metaphysical naturalism, such as existentialism. Several Metaphysical Naturalists have used the trends in scientific discoveries about minds to argue that no supernatural minds exist. For instance, Internet Infidels co-founder Jeffery Jay Lowder says, "Since all known mental activity has a physical basis, there are probably
6896504
Naturalism (philosophy)


the methodology of science, for which metaphysical naturalism provides only one possible ontological foundation. Metaphysical naturalism holds that all properties related to consciousness and the mind are reducible to, or supervene upon, nature. Broadly, the corresponding theological perspective is religious naturalism or spiritual naturalism. More specifically, metaphysical naturalism rejects the supernatural concepts and explanations that are part of many religions. Methodological naturalism concerns itself with methods of learning what nature is. These methods are useful in the evaluation of claims about existence and knowledge and in identifying causal mechanisms responsible
932222