Metaphysical Period

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In the Antiquity and Medieval age, metaphysics primarily was addressed to issues of life. As an independent method, metaphysics appears at Plato. This type of knowledge, rising from the empirical reality of disembodied entities (ideas). Aristotle in his classification of sciences first assigns the science of being as a cause of all things. Metaphysics is the most valuable of Sciences. According to Aristotle Metaphysics is not just a meaning but it is the goal of life, a source of pleasure.

In medieval era metaphysics was regarded as the highest form of rational knowledge. Medieval metaphysics gave a detailed treatment for such problems as relationship between freedom and necessity, the nature of general concepts. In Renaissance dominates the pantheistic natural philosophy, and metaphysics was hardly developing. In modern times, metaphysics makes the object of its study the nature, experiencing strong influence of natural science. During this period, the attention of metaphysics focused mainly on issues of epistemology. The development of this science is associated with such names as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. In the Enlightenment era metaphysics has been criticized by mechanistic materialism. Kant criticized dogmatic metaphysics of the past. Hegel contrasted metaphysics and dialectic as two opposing methods. In the second half of 19 century begins a negative attitude towards this science. Emerging trends anti-metaphysics: voluntarism of Schopenhauer, religious irrationalism Kierkegaard, Feuerbach’s materialistic anthropologism. Metaphysics was criticized by positivism and neo-Kantianism. But then the situation was change. Metaphysics again begins to evolve and philosophers of various schools and

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