Metaphysics in Human Life

• Thanks to intelligence, knowledge isn't limited to material aspects
• Humans are open to all of reality
• Metaphysics is seeking radical orientation
• It assumes human life has radical disorientation

Metaphysics in Human Life

• Metaphysics is a natural aptitude in all humans to question existence and its meaning
• Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) questioned why there is something rather than nothing
• Philosophy converts the natural attitude into systematic knowledge and science
• Metaphysics provides critical vision to analyze and question other areas of knowledge
• It lays the foundation for moral life and orients actions towards existence

Metaphysics in Philosophy

• Aristotle started his book Metaphysics stating all men desire to know by nature
• Human seeks the ultimate cause of things beyond appearances
• Philosophy is divided into branches to make research accessible
• Philosophy of nature studies the structure and ultimate causes of material beings
• Anthropology studies the origin and primary structure of human beings
• The branch of metaphysics asks what reality is
• Answering this question is important because rest of knowledge depends on it
• If the difference between what is real and unreal is not distinguished, knowledge and life will be unstable

Metaphysics Among Sciences

• Each science studies a part of reality with a specific perspective and method
• Biology studies the origin, composition, and material evolution of living beings with experimental methods
• The sciences are hierarchically organized, where some provide foundations for others
• The more basic the objective of a science, the more necessary it is in overall science
• Metaphysics is the first science because it offers and studies the premises for other sciences

Metaphysics of Being

• Metaphysics doesn't focus on concrete realities, but what is common to all beings
• It focuses on the ultimate constituent of all reality
• Parmenides of Elea (5th century BC) stated the most radical trait of things is that they are
• The object of metaphysics is the being of beings - everything that is
• Metaphysics studies beings not for being this or that, but for being
• It analyzes the concept of possessing perfection of being

Universal and Transcendental Knowledge

• Metaphysics is a universal knowledge because of its object (reality in itself)
• Metaphysics is also transcendental, focusing on perfection beyond concrete things (being)
• Being can be applied to everything that is real
• Metaphysics, a Science of First Principles
• Science is a system of truths based on principles
• It does not need to justify premises but advance knowledge
• Principles are expressed as judgments with validity based on being and its properties
• Metaphysics studies these radical principles

Principle of Non-Contradiction

• An object being and not being simultaneously is impossible
• The first principle immediately presents itself as understanding from reality
• It is evident by itself and does not need demonstration
• It is universal because it is truth implicit in the notion of being valid
• It is necessary because it is understood that a thing cannot not to be what it is at that moment
• Someone who denies this principle makes a contradiction
• Impossible contradiction in reality and unthinkable by reason
• First principle of reality and knowledge

Other Principles

• Principle of Identity: Each being is what it is, and not different from itself
• Principle of Excluded Third: There is no middle term between being and non-being
• Principle of Causality: What exists, but might not, could not give existence to itself
• What is not itself, has a cause for its existence or qualities

Branches of Metaphysics

• Abstract discipline divided into three branches to facilitate study
• Ontology deals with the being of things and existence
• Gnoseology studies being in thought and validity

Structure of Reality

• Experience shows the plurality of realities in constant movement
• Intuition is that this constant flow of elements forms a cosmos and a unitate to explain unity and multiplicity

Analogy of Being

• Heraclitus believed change and multiplicity of things excluded being
• Parmenides considered being requires denial of change and multiplicity
• Aristotle explained that the unitate and multiplicity of things are not mutually exclusive
• Need to pay attention to different modes of being of beings to deepen fundamental reality

The Term "Being"

• Analogous, since it is attributed to all beings with a common meaning
• Applies differently to various realities because things are in different ways

Reality of Change

• Act: Perfection that has a subject
• Potency: Real capacity of a subject to receive acts
• Being in potency implies a certain way of being, but in a lower degree an acts
• Potency are intrinsic and constitutive principles of all things

Canvi (change)

• Canvi = act of the potencia
• No surgeix res es, que li passa a ser en acte

Substratum of Reality

• "Sustancia" Es el nucli duna coasa, gracies aal qual no en un simple agrega t de
• The substancia
• Accident is the qualities
• Categories or genrees suprems
• Substancia is the base de la cos

Essences and the Act of Being

• Unitate singular is important

The essence

• "allò que fal que una aosa sigui el, a determina el sue mode de ber
• L'acte ee ser is the perffeccions, and comvun to tots els ensis

Essence

• Is what something is, which determines its way of being

The Act of Being

• The common perfection to all beings

The Graces of Essence

• Gradi of lessence
• L'essen ce limita lacte dee ser

Essence Materials

• Essence des eh materials is composa dee dos principis materi and la forma