METAPHYSICS

The Question of Reality (Metaphysics)

The Question of Reality (Metaphysics)

Introduction

 In philosophy, a term known as metaphysics, referred to the writings of Aristotle nearly three centuries after his death. Metaphysics is the area of philosophy that attempts to understand the basic nature of all reality, whether it is seen or indistinguishable we try to relate to our existence. It seeks a description so basic that it applies to everything, whether divine or human. In short, metaphysics attempts to enlighten what anything must be like in order to be at all.

To call one a metaphysician in this traditional, philosophical sense indicates nothing more than his or her interest in attempting to discover what underlies everything. Old materialists, who said that there is nothing but matter in motion, and current naturalists, who say that everything is made of lifeless, non-experiencing energy, are just as much to be classified as metaphysicians as are idealists, who maintain that there is nothing but ideas, or mind, or spirit . The major schools of thought in relation with metaphysics are realism, idealism, materialism, determinism, and libertarianism.(Kim,2000)

Existence and Reality

Metaphysics is sometimes regarded as the study of reality. In that sense it answers the question, "what is real and what is the nature of the real and how is it distinguished from what is not real?"The question in this form began with the original skeptics, the sophists, but became a serious part of philosophy by the influence of Plato, who introduced that subtle form of mysticism that has plagued philosophy ever since. That particular mystic idea is that what seems real and obvious is in some sense an illusion, while reality is something quite different and ultimately unknowable or knowable only by some means other than reasoning from the evidence. This is the view held by all mystics and championed ...