Metaphysics & Epistemology Socrates 470 BC - 339 BC Plato 427 BC - 347 BC Aristotle 384 BC - 322 BC

Metaphysics The study of truths that cannot be reached through objective investigation of material reality. 2

The Two Basic Questions of Metaphysics What is it? Does it exist? 3

What is the IT? IS IS NOT Objects! Things! Matter! Soul Mind Thoughts (e.g., cognition) Feelings (e.g., depression) Truth Justice Knowledge 4

The SUBJECT MATTER of psychology & Metaphysics 4

The METHOD of Metaphysics Rationalism: Involves logical argument, reason, analysis of concepts, meaning and so on. Rationalism is non-empirical. It is a non-observationally oriented method. Truth is determined by reason, not observations of the world. Rationalism is, therefore, anti-scientific in a sense. 4

Example 1: Aristotle “The knowledge of the soul admittedly contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above all, to our understanding of Nature, for the soul is in some sense the principle of animal life. Our aim is to grasp and understand, first its essential nature, and secondly its properties….  To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world. As the form of question which here presents itself, viz. the question 'What is it?'” Question…What is the soul? 4

Example 1: Aristotle Method of answering the question… “Such are the three ways in which soul has traditionally been defined; one group of thinkers declared it to be that which is most originative of movement because it moves itself, another group to be the subtlest and most nearly incorporeal of all kinds of body. We have now sufficiently set forth the difficulties and inconsistencies to which these theories are exposed. It remains now to examine the doctrine that soul is composed of the elements.” The method is….developing a theory about how the soul should be defined AND… 4

Example 1: Aristotle Testing the theory with logical argument… "What is soul? It is substance in the sense which corresponds to the definitive formula of a thing's essence. That means that it is 'the essential whatness' of a body of the character just assigned. Suppose that what is literally an 'organ', like an axe, were a natural body, its 'essential whatness', would have been its essence, and so its soul; if this disappeared from it, it would have ceased to be an axe, except in name. As it is, it is just an axe; it wants the character which is required to make its whatness or formulable essence a soul; for that, it would have had to be a natural body of a particular kind, viz. one having in itself the power of setting itself in movement and arresting itself. Next, apply this doctrine in the case of the 'parts' of the living body. Suppose that the eye were an animal - sight would have been its soul, for sight is the substance or essence of the eye which corresponds to the formula, the eye being merely the matter of seeing; when seeing is removed the eye is no longer an eye, except in name-it is no more a real eye than the eye of a statue or of a painted figure. We must now extend our consideration from the 'parts' to the whole living body; for what the departmental sense is to the bodily part which is its organ, that the whole faculty of sense is to the whole sensitive body as such." 4

Example 2: Patricia Churchland 4

Example 3: Plato 4

Example 3: Plato The Allegory of the Cave Human perception is fallible Since perception is fallible we can not trust our perception to be an accurate representation of reality If our perceptions are not accurate representations of reality then we can not determine any universal truth about reality via sense perception Therefore, the only way to achieve universal truths is through logical argument. 4

Example 4: Socrates Inductive Definition Problem: What is beauty? Method: Inductive definition 1) Collect together a large number of instances of beauty. 2) Determine what things all these instances have in common. 3) Defined beauty according to what all the instances of beauty had in common. 1) Randomly sample a large number of people considered beautiful. 2) Analyze the faces of all the beautiful people in the sample and discover that their faces are all highly symmetrical. 3) Conclude that the essence of beauty is symmetry. Beauty is symmetry! 4

Example 4: Socrates Inductive Definition Problem: What is ADHD? Method: Inductive definition Does this make sense? 4

Problem Metaphysics is the study of THINGS THAT CAN NOT BE DIRECTLY OBSERVED Some of these things belong to the subject matter of psychology Psychology claims to be a science Science is the EMPIRICAL investigation of OBSERVABLE reality. How can psychology be an observational investigation of phenomena we can not observe? 15

“Do you know where your car is?” Epistemology What is…..Knowledge? “Do you know where your car is?” 16

Theories of knowledge 1) Empiricism: naïve empiricism, radical empiricism 2) Rationalism 3) Pragmatism 4) Relativism 5) Phenominalism 17

Empiricism Donald Trump will be a bad president because, X, Y, Z. Socialism is better than capitalism because, X, Y, Z. If X, Y and Z are arguments, these are not empiricist claims to truth. The naïve empiricist holds that our ideas and theories need to be tested against reality, and accepted or rejected on the basis of how well they correspond to  observed facts. 18

Empiricism The RADICAL empiricist holds that ONLY observed facts are relevant to science. This means that no theory, hypothesis, conjecture, stipulation prediction, conjecture, speculation, etc., should be allowed in science Which one are you? Implicit vs explicit attitudes. 19

Rationalism The only things we can be sure of are those things that derive from logical argument or reason. Are memories in the brain? What is Residential School Syndrome? 19

Relativism (Deconstructionism, Post-Modernism, etc) There is no objective truth: anything which a person can perceive is true for that person, but not necessarily true for the next person. There is no way of living that is better, truer, more moral than any other. There are an infinite number of ways to interpret the world, live in the world, none are superior to any other. Is what beauty is to you different than what beauty is to me? 21

Pragmatism The only relevance of knowledge is that it can be used to improve our lives. It is roughly speaking irrelevant what the ultimate truth of the matter is. So it does not matter whether or not X or Y is true, what matters is which approach to life, that is, believing X or believing Y, works. 19