Exam Two Review
Chapter Five Review
What Is the Nature of Reality? * The philosophical study of metaphysics examines issues beyond the physical world such as the meaning of life, the existence of free will, and the fundamental principles of the universe * Metaphysicians attempt to explain the nature of reality itself. * Aristotle laid the foundations for this branch of philosophy in his Metaphysics * Philosophical inquiry into the nature of truth is called epistemology * The study of epistemology attempts to describe and explain the nature of knowledge and truth, and whether it is possible to achieve genuine knowledge or perceive an ultimate truth
KEY TERMS
Metaphysics – most generally, the philosophical investigation of the nature, constitution, and structure of reality
Epistemology – the study of the nature of knowledge and justificaiton
Reality Is the Eternal Realm of the Forms: Plato * Plato attempted to resolve the conflict between an unchanging, ultimate truth and the everyday flux of our circumstantial lives by proposing two different “worlds”: the world of “becoming”, of our physical world, and the world of “being”, a realm of eternal and unchanging truths that is knowable through the exercise of a reason * The world of “being” is populated by ideal “forms”, archetypes of everything that exists. * In our everyday world of the sense we experience only imperfect examples of, or “participants” in, these “forms” but through careful study, reflection and reasoning, we can begin to apprehend the true and eternal nature of the forms * Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a vivid metaphor for this quest to understand the ultimate essences or truths of things * Plato’s belief that genuine knowledge of the essential forms can be achieved through “innate” or inborn ideas and the faculty of reason makes him a rationalist. * In contrast, philosophers who believe that true knowledge is best achieved through sense experience are
What Is the Nature of Reality? * The philosophical study of metaphysics examines issues beyond the physical world such as the meaning of life, the existence of free will, and the fundamental principles of the universe * Metaphysicians attempt to explain the nature of reality itself. * Aristotle laid the foundations for this branch of philosophy in his Metaphysics * Philosophical inquiry into the nature of truth is called epistemology * The study of epistemology attempts to describe and explain the nature of knowledge and truth, and whether it is possible to achieve genuine knowledge or perceive an ultimate truth
KEY TERMS
Metaphysics – most generally, the philosophical investigation of the nature, constitution, and structure of reality
Epistemology – the study of the nature of knowledge and justificaiton
Reality Is the Eternal Realm of the Forms: Plato * Plato attempted to resolve the conflict between an unchanging, ultimate truth and the everyday flux of our circumstantial lives by proposing two different “worlds”: the world of “becoming”, of our physical world, and the world of “being”, a realm of eternal and unchanging truths that is knowable through the exercise of a reason * The world of “being” is populated by ideal “forms”, archetypes of everything that exists. * In our everyday world of the sense we experience only imperfect examples of, or “participants” in, these “forms” but through careful study, reflection and reasoning, we can begin to apprehend the true and eternal nature of the forms * Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a vivid metaphor for this quest to understand the ultimate essences or truths of things * Plato’s belief that genuine knowledge of the essential forms can be achieved through “innate” or inborn ideas and the faculty of reason makes him a rationalist. * In contrast, philosophers who believe that true knowledge is best achieved through sense experience are