Lesson Objectives

Understand the basic set of questions that Metaphysics addresses

Understand the basic set of questions that Epistemology addresses

Appreciate the lessons of Plato's Allegory of the Cave for young thinkers

Understand the relationship between Plato's Worlds of Being & Becoming

Appreciate the lesson of Plato's Allegory of the Chariot for young thinkers

Understand the relationship between the three parts of Plato's Republic

Key Terms

Metaphysics

Epistemology

Knowledge

Belief

Allegory of the Cave

World of Being

World of Becoming

Allegory of the Chariot

The Republic

Metaphysics

Classical Metaphysics: What is Being?

• What is it to be?

• Why is there something rather than nothing?

• The study of the arche — of first causes

• Why do some things change and some don't?

• Monism v. Dualism

• Materialism v. Idealism

Modern Metaphysics: How do we even address existence?

• Works within a commitment to Naturalism

• Ontology: questions centered on existence (cf. Heidegger's dasein)

• Personal Identity: questions centered on persistence (eg. Ship of Theseus)

• Phil. of Math: questions centered on parts / wholes / numeration (cf. Gödel)

• Phil. of Time: questions centered on our experience of reality (cf. Hawking)

• Cause & Effect: with implications for Free Will / Determinism (cf. Frankfurt)

What is NOT Metaphysics?

• Questions centered on Ethics, Aesthetics, Society, Epistemology, etc.

• The 1970s New Age movement in the West (and its descendents)

     • Pseudoscience, Spiritualism, Emotivism, etc.