Introduction to Metaphysics

Overview

• Immanuel Kant described metaphysics as a "bottomless abyss"; William James called it an "obstinately clear way to think."
• Lecture will cover:
  • History of metaphysics
  • Subject matter of metaphysics
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein's views on metaphysics

Definition and Roots

• Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy, alongside ethics, epistemology, and logic.
• Concerned with the ultimate nature of reality, though often considered vague by newcomers.
• Roots trace back to ancient Greeks, ~2500 years ago.

Aristotle's Influence

• Aristotle's work published in 1st century BC, including the treatise titled "Metaphysics" (meaning "after the physics").
  • The title referred to its position after Aristotle's "Physics," not its actual content.
• Key themes in Aristotle's metaphysics:
  • Study of first causes (unchanging source of all things, often discussing God).
  • Study of being/existence (identifying fundamental categories of being).

Developments in the 17th and 18th Centuries

• Continental Rationalists distinguished between:
  • General Metaphysics (Ontology): Study of being/existence, aligns with Aristotle.
  • Special Metaphysics: Divided into three disciplines:
    • Cosmology
    • Rational psychology
    • Natural theology
• Special metaphysics addresses specific existence questions (e.g., immortality, free will, mind-body problem).

Present-Day Metaphysics

• Focus remains primarily on general metaphysics (ontology).
• Contemporary ontologists focus on:
  • Accounts of things that exist rather than the definition of existence.
  • Fundamental categories of being (properties, numbers, events, etc.).
• Universals: Concepts shared by multiple objects (e.g., redness, squareness).
  • Debate exists about their existence apart from individual instances.

Contemporary Questions in Metaphysics

• Peter van Inwagen's three key metaphysical questions:
  1. What are the general features of the world and what does it contain?
  2. What is the world like? Why does it exist as described?
  3. What is our place in the world? How do humans fit into it?
• Metaphysics addresses abstract questions, some considered unanswerable.

Wittgenstein's Perspective

• Ludwig Wittgenstein viewed metaphysical questions as often nonsensical rather than false.
• K.T. Fan explains this as philosophical propositions not stating facts at all, leading to nonsense.
• Wittgenstein argues solutions to life's riddles lie outside our expressive capabilities.
• He acknowledges existence of the inexpressible and the mystical.

Conclusion

• Despite skepticism, Wittgenstein respected metaphysics, influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer.
• Quote from Wittgenstein: "I regard the great metaphysical writings of the past as among the noblest productions of the human mind."