Day 4: Branch of Philosophy: Metaphysics

“Welcome back to reality”

“It must be that what can be spoken and thought is: for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible
for what is nothing to be.” –Parmenides (the founder of Ontology)

METAPHYSICS:

– main branch of philosophy that deals with reality and existence

- “beyond physics” p. 16

- Transliteration of the Greek words, “ta meta ta phusika” – the things after the Physics,
based on Aristotle’s series of works “The First Philosophy” (Oxford Languages)

What is ultimately real?

Fundamental questions: “what we are” and “what our purpose is”

– Ken Damerow, Study.com

- Question the initial concept of reality

 E.g. floor
 Flat, solid, smooth, particular color, material could be concrete, wood, and supports
the weight
 Different with the reality from a chemist, physicist

***so, how can we say that we know as real is really real?

e.g. How can you say that the person seated right beside you is real?

Aspects of Metaphysics:

- Examine the major questions concerning the nature of reality

- Represents the speculative and synthesizing activities of philosophy, and it provides the
theoretical framework that allows scientists and other scholars to create worldviews and
develop hypotheses that can be tested according to their basic assumptions
--- general but foundational

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 Theories of science, related to the theories of reality
 Philosophy of science – series of experimentations (same as the Philosophy of
Education)
- Metaphysics – goes beyond experimental facts

***okay if aware that they have exited the realm of science and entered the most basic

world of metaphysics
4 Subsets of Metaphysics:

1. Cosmology – study of the physical universe (to understand it the most); nature of the universe
(Solomon, et.al)

-- consist in the study of theories about origin, nature, and development of the universe as

an orderly system

***cosmogony - study of the origins of the universe

Fundamental Questions:

1. How did the universe originate and develop?

 Extreme answers: designed or accident.

2. Is there a purpose as to where the universe is tending?

Teleological -- the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than
of the cause by which they arise. (Oxford Languages)

3. Nature of time and space

2. Theological --

Theology – study of God

 Part of religious theory that has to do with the conceptions of and about God.

e.g. is there a God? How many? Attributes?

-- Why does evil exist?

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Different views:

a. theism – belief in god/gods, creator, interference, personal relations to his creatures

b. atheism – does not believe in God

c. pantheism – the universe as a whole is god – God is all and all is god.

d. Deism – belief in God but only as creator, no intervention, doesn’t care about creation

e. monotheism – belief in only one God – Judaism, Christianism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism

(helped shaped the 3 religions – History.com)

 f. Polytheism – belief in many gods – Hinduism, Buddhism, Ancient Egyptian Belief)

3. Anthropological –

anthropology – study of human beings

- humanity – both the subject and object of inquiry

e.g. What is the relation between the mind and the body?

What is humanity’s moral status?

To what extent are individuals free?

Does an individual have a soul?

***position of the people are reflected on political, social, religious, and educational practices and
design.

4. Ontology -- study of the nature of existence or what it means for anything to be

- task to determine what we mean when we say that something is

e.g. Is basic reality found in matter or physical energy (the world we can sense)?

Is it composed of one element? (e.g. matter or spirit?)

*What exists? (epistemology – how can we know the existence of such thing)

-- as a branch of philosophy, is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of objects. In
simple terms, ontology seeks the classification and explanation of entities. Ontology is
about the object of inquiry, what you set to examine. (warwick.ac.uk)

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Metaphysics in Education

*nobody can escape Metaphysical decisions, unless one merely choose to vegetate (stagnate) – and
even that decision in itself would be a metaphysical decision about the nature and function of humanity.

NO CHOICE IS STILL A CHOICE.

 Humans are willing to die and live for convictions…

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“Metaphysics, the issue of ultimate reality, is central to any concept of education because it is
important that the educational program of the school be based upon fact and reality, rather than
fancy, illusion and imagination.”

Question: What is fact? What is reality?

***Anthropology is important to education

 “until we are clear on what man is, we shall not be clear about much else” – D. Elton
Trueblood

--- anthropological position will lead to significantly different approaches to the

educational process

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EPISTEMOLOGY

- Branch of Philosophy that studies the nature, sources, and validity of knowledge.
- Seeks to answer:
 What is true?
 How do we know?
- Study of knowledge acquisition (study.com)

Dimensions (Extent) of Knowledge:

1. Can reality be known?

-- close connection between epistemology and metaphysics

Anti:

Skepticism - it is impossible to gain knowledge and search for truth is vain

- Most skeptics (hesitates about the existence of God) are agnostics and atheists

Gorgias: (483-376BCE) – a Sophist (known for teaching rhetoric in Ancient Greece)

-- asserted that nothing exists, and if it did, we could not know it.

***full-blown skepticism can make intelligent and consistent action impossible 😊

 ***broader sense – often used to denote the attitude of questioning any assumption or
conclusion until it can be subjected to rigorous
examination (good or bad?)

Agnosticism -- profession of ignorance, specially in the existence or non-existence of God, rather than

positive denial of any valid knowledge

 Cannot know the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of their experience
 Reality can be known; but…
-- must decide through what sources reality may be known

-- must have conception of how to judge the validity of their knowledge

As per American Psychological Association:

*”an agnostic is someone who doesn't believe it's possible to know for sure that a god exists.”

*an atheist – someone who doesn’t believe in God.

*an agnostic atheist – doesn’t believe and also doesn’t think we can ever know whether god
exist or not.

(https://www.apa.org/monitor)

2. Is truth relative or absolute?

Relative if the answer to these is YES:

- Is all truth subject to change? (example: definition of something)

- Is it possible that whatever is true today may be false tomorrow?

Absolute, if:

- eternally and universally true, irrespective of time and place

***place it at the very center of the school curriculum

3. Is truth subjective or objective? – connected to the relativity of Truth

3 basic positions of the objectivity of knowledge (Van Cleve Morris):

a. knowledge comes to us from the outside (inserted to our nervous system) – Math, Physical Science

b. knowers contribute something in this engagement of themselves with the world

-- partially responsible to the structure of knowledge

 -- Social, Behavioral Sciences

c. pure subjects – manufacturers of truth rather than recipient or participants

-- Art, Literature, Music

4. Is truth independent of human experience?

A priori – refers to truth that some thinkers claim is built into the very fabric of reality

(triangle)

 Exists prior to human experience

 Doesn’t matter whether we accept it or not

A posteriori – posterior to human experience of it and dependent on human awareness p. 22

*modern philosophies gear towards this rather than a priori

Sources of Knowledge:

Activity: Per group, students will discuss what kind of a source of knowledge it is, give instances when
it is used and what are the possible drawbacks/dangers when it is used alone.

1. senses –

Empiricism – view that knowledge is obtained through the senses

- Built upon the very nature of human experience

--*danger of naïve acceptance – our senses have been demonstrated to be both incomplete
and undependable

Instances:

1. sickness can distort and limit sensory perception

e.g. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP)/Congenital Analgesia

-- a person cannot feel pain (diagnosed when no crying or wincing happened

after being hurt) – webmd.com

-- other sensory modalities such as touch, pressure, and vibration are not
affected – (springeropen.com)

2. location/space – a stick looking bent in water but straight on air

3. fatigue, frustration, common colds

 ***should be open to replication and public examination

2. revelation

-- revealed knowledge -- prime importance in the field of religion

-- God’s communication concerning divine will (considered to be absolute and uncontaminated)

-- accepted by faith

Danger:

-- distortion of revealed truth in the process of human interpretation

3. authority

-- it comes from experts or something sanctified overtime as tradition – considered as true

e.g. in the classroom: textbooks, teacher or reference works

Benefits:

1. saves time

2. enhances social and scientific progress

Danger:

-- if authoritative knowledge is built upon a foundation of incorrect assumptions, then that

knowledge will be of necessity be distorted

4. Reason

Rationalism -- reasoning, thought, logic is the central factor in knowledge

***sensations and experiences are raw materials of knowledge

-- these should be organized by the mind into a meaningful system before they

become knowledge

***logic is the factor (formal)

Danger:

Logical systems of thought are only as valid as the premises upon which they are

built
5. Intuition

-- direct apprehension of knowledge that is not the result of conscious reasoning or of

immediate sense perception

--- immediate feeling of certainty

--- imagination touched with conviction

 Occurs beneath the threshold of consciousness.

 Sudden flash of insight

--- most personal way of knowing. Able to leap the limitations of human experience

***source of both religious and secular knowledge

Danger:

-- does not appear to be a safe method of obtaining knowledge when used alone

-- may go away very easily and may lead to absurd claims unless it is controlled by or

checked against other methods of knowing

6. The complementary nature of knowledge sources

-- various sources can be seen as complementary

-- no One source only

VALIDITY OF KNOWLEDGE

 What was true then, might not be acceptable now

3 Tests of Truth:

1. the Correspondence Theory = tests that use agreement with fact as a standard of judgment

-- TRUTH is faithfulness to objective reality

e.g, There is a lion in the classroom. – can be verified by empirical evidence

-- this test of truth is often held by those working in the sciences

Three Main Objections to this theory:

a. How can we compare our ideas with reality, since we know only our own experiences and
cannot get outside of our experiences so that we can compare our ideas with reality in its pure state?

b. our sense data are clear and accurate?

c. inadequate – we have ideas that have no concrete evidence outside the area of human

thought

2. The Coherence theory – places its trust in the consistency of harmony of all one’s judgments

- a judgment is true if it is consistent with other judgments that have been previously accepted

as true

-- held by those who deal with abstract ideas and uplift intellectualism (opposed to

material aspects of reality

Objection to this Theory:

-- false system of thought can be just as internally consistent as true systems

-- does not distinguish between consistent and consistent error

3. Pragmatic Theory

-- no such thing as static or absolute truth

Pragmatism – see the test of truth in its utility, workability or satisfactory consequences.

– John Dewey, William James – “truth is what works”

Epistemology and Education:

 Primary determinant of educational beliefs and practices

e.g. muslim schools, adjusted schedule every Friday
e.g. Biblical integration

The Metaphysical-Epistemological (reality-truth) Dilemma

WEB OF CIRCULARITY: *chicken or egg

We cannot make a statement about reality without first having a theory for arriving at the
truth; and on the other hand, a theory of thought cannot be developed without first
having a concept of reality.
 ***acceptance of a position in metaphysics and epistemology is a FAITH CHOICE -- entails
commitment to a way of life

Ask students to explain why.

Whatever you believe in --- have faith in, will determine your truth and your reality; whether it is a
faith in supernatural entities, like GOD, or faith in science or “nothingness”. It doesn’t matter, it is all
about your subjective faith.
--- will not have a problem for those who are open to the thought that there is limitation for
everything and for those who have already decided on their personal choice, faith and commitment.

All persons live by faith in the basic beliefs they have chosen.

--***this is a problem for an average secular individual