Metaphysics

Catalog description

Metaphysics is arguably the “deepest” subject within philosophy. At its most general level, metaphysics asks: what exists? And how is it all related? If particles exist, then why bother believing in the things they compose, like tables, and chairs, and us? Isn’t that double-counting? And if it’s not double-counting, then why do some arrangements of particles compose things and others don’t? What about colors, temperatures and smells-do they exist? Are holes real? And what makes it the same balloon if we pop it or paint it blue? Come to think of it, how did something I did cause the balloon to pop? Is causation a real relationship between things, or just part of a story we use to help explain what’s going on around us? Are we just part of that story? In this course we consider not only answers to these questions, but the various methodologies employed in attempting to answer them. As we will see, metaphysics impacts every area of philosophy, not to mention our daily lives.