Question by Christine Louise: What would be some good questions to ask about metaphysics?
My friend was a philosophy major and studied metaphysics, which really interests me. He said I can pick his brain, so I was wondering if there are specifics I could ask to help me understand metaphysics a little better?
Best answer:
Answer by Gallophobic
METAPHYSICS EXERCISE: Count all the things in the room you’re in right now. All of them.
What do you think? Answer below!
you could ask him to explain his personal metaphysical understanding and how he came to it – a cascade of further questions will flow as he explains his metaphysical framework for his understanding of life the universe and everything.
revel in the fact that the more attentive you are the better his explanation will be
and if you ever get to feeling awestruck – hit him with a few curveballs like “what is Good” and “why does evolution take place”
Are you in a universe which is ruled by natural laws and, therefore, is stable, firm, absolute—and knowable? Or are you in an incomprehensible chaos, a realm of inexplicable miracles, an unpredictable, unknowable flux, which your mind is impotent to grasp? Are the things you see around you real—or are they only an illusion? Do they exist independent of any observer—or are they created by the observer? Are they the object or the subject of man’s consciousness? Are they what they are—or can they be changed by a mere act of your consciousness, such as a wish?
The nature of your actions—and of your ambition—will be different, according to which set of answers you come to accept. These answers are the province of metaphysics—the study of existence as such or, in Aristotle’s words, of “being qua being”—the basic branch of philosophy. “Philosophy: Who Needs It,” Ayn Rand
Is the universe intelligible to man, or unintelligible and unknowable? Can man find happiness on earth, or is he doomed to frustration and despair? Does man have the power of choice, the power to choose his goals and to achieve them, the power to direct the course of his life—or is he the helpless plaything of forces beyond his control, which determine his fate? Is man, by nature, to be valued as good, or to be despised as evil? These are metaphysical questions, but the answers to them determine the kind of ethics men will accept and practice; the answers are the link between metaphysics and ethics. And although metaphysics as such is not a normative science, the answers to this category of questions assume, in man’s mind, the function of metaphysical value-judgments, since they form the foundation of all of his moral values.
“The Psycho-Epistemology of Art,” The Romantic Manifesto, 19. Ayn Rand
Ask your friend about the relationship between Godel’s incompleteness theorem and metaphysics. Basically, how mathematics taps into the realm of metaphysics.
Thats an excellent question;
For the current philosophical,mathematicians and philosophers are likely to be aware-of,if not even use,the intricate workings of,what i call,the equatuion makers.
That this is definately no joke-and,somewhere,these things are being (philosophy/mathematically or both)-discussed,criticised,”furthered” and handed-on (= taught!),is a reality;one only has to go to the current analytical philosophical magazines to know this.
And..if my experience is anything to go by…the ordinary student may be totally “lost” when the equation-making starts,on those rather specialist pages.
All the editors of these writings have been shown/taught and know of some so-called philosophy basics; some history( Plato,aristotle ect) and of course some mathematical training/basics or complex.
So one can see that there are all sorts of assumption,”truths”,ideas and beliefs that lay behind their writings-and-equations.
As i said,you have an excellent question;and i would start by having a look through a selection of the above current mags(i saw them at my university library;a search on the internet should produce something too).
And i would do this with an “open mind”;to try to find-out what the assumptions are,what are the problems that they are discussing-with-a-view to a/their solution.
P.s. The above is to do with philosophy.
You should know that everyday metaphysics is done-all-the-time and has to do with doing math/art and even “crafts” too!
And no-one interested in philosophy,and its history,should ever forget the shananigans that started in philosophy last century;i mean the disgusting,taught nonsense (by the western “positivists/analysists”) that metaphysics was NOT logical-and-thus-to-be-abolished from philosophy !
Popper and others successfully opposed that-serious at that time-Trash !!!