Philosophy: Metaphysics and Ontology

Metaphysics

• Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy exploring reality's nature, being, and fundamental universal principles, beyond the physical and empirical sciences.

Ontology

• Ontology studies existence, being, and categories of beings.
• It examines what entities exist and how they relate to one another.

Ousia

• Ousia, often translated as "substance" or "essence", is a Greek term.
• In Aristotle's view, it refers to a thing's fundamental nature or core being.

Hule

• Hule, or "matter," is the underlying physical substance of things.
• It's contrasted with their form (morphe).

Teleology

• Teleology is the study of purpose and design in nature.
• It stresses that things have inherent goals or functions (telos).

Aristotle's First Philosophy

• Aristotle's first philosophy involves four aspects:
  • Studying being as a fundamental concept (being qua being).
  • Examining essential causes and first principles.
  • Investigating substances and their essence.
  • Exploring immovable, everlasting entities, such as the Prime Mover.

Aristotle's Four Causes

• Material Cause: The substance something is made of.
• Formal Cause: The essence or form of something.
• Efficient Cause: The agent or process bringing something into existence.
• Final Cause: The goal or purpose of something.

Four Ways of Understanding Being

• Categories: Different modes of existence (e.g., substance, quality, quantity).
• Truth: Correspondence between thought and reality.
• Potentiality and Actuality: The state of potential versus actualization.
• Substance (Ousia): The primary sense of being.

Four Understandings of Substance

• Individual entities (primary substances).
• Essence or form of a thing.
• Underlying matter.
• Combination of form and matter in concrete beings.

Prime Matter

• Prime matter is pure potential.
• It's the underlying substrate that can take any form but lacks actual characteristics.

Matter as Substance

• Matter cannot be a substance independently; it needs form.
• Substance requires unity of form and matter.

Aristotle's View on Motion

• Heraclitean: Emphasizes change and flux as fundamental.
• Parmenidean: Denies the reality of change, viewing being as static.

Milesian Philosophers and Causation

• The Milesians (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes) introduced the concept of underlying principles (e.g., water, air).
• This influenced Aristotle's exploration of causes.

Anaxagoras's Importance

• Anaxagoras introduced Nous (Mind) as a governing principle.
• This concept influenced Aristotle's thought on intelligent causes in the cosmos.

Prime Mover

• The Prime Mover is the external, eternal, and immaterial force causing all motion.
• A pure actual entity, devoid of potentiality.

Prime Mover's Characteristics

• The Prime Mover can't have matter or potentiality since that implies change.
• It must be purely actual and unchanging to be the ultimate cause.

Aristotle's Critique of Plato

• Aristotle agreed with Plato on the importance of forms and essence.
• He disagreed with Plato's separation of forms from material reality; forms are part of things, not separate.

Primary and Secondary Substance

• Primary substance: Individual entities (e.g., a specific tree).
• Secondary substance: Universal categories or essences (e.g., "tree-ness").

Potentiality and Parmenides

• Potentiality resolves Parmenides' static view of reality.
• It explains how change and motion are possible without contradiction.

Potentiality and Actuality

• Potentiality is the capacity for change.
• Actuality is the realization of that capacity.

Plotinus' One

• The One is the ultimate source of all reality in Plotinus' philosophy.
• It surpasses being and intellect.

Plotinus' Three Hypostases

• The One: Source of all existence.
• Nous (Intellect): Realm of forms and pure thought.
• Psyche (Soul): Intermediary between the material and divine.

Emanation

• Emanation describes reality's hierarchical flow from the One.
• Each level radiates from its predecessor while depending on the One.

Apophatism

• Apophatism describes God or ultimate reality through negation.
• It focuses on what something is not rather than what it is.