Posts Tagged ‘existentialism’
Modern Metaphysics
Wiki, Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. Someone who studies metaphysics would be called either a “metaphysician” or a “meta-physicist.”
The word derives from the Greek words μετά (metá) (meaning “beyond” or “after”) and φυσικά (physiká) (meaning “physical”), “physical” referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity. The prefix meta- (“beyond”) was attached to the chapters in Aristotle’s work that physically followed after the chapters on “physics,” in posthumously edited collections. Aristotle himself did not call these works Metaphysics. Aristotle called some of the subjects treated there “first philosophy.”
A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what types of things there are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, object-hood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.
Before the development of modern science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as “natural philosophy”; the term “science” itself meant “knowledge” of epistemological origin. The scientific method, however, made natural philosophy an empirical and experimental activity unlike the rest of philosophy, and by the end of the eighteenth century it had begun to be called “science” in order to distinguish it from philosophy. Thereafter, metaphysics became the philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence.
1. What is Metaphysics?
2. Existence
3. Universal and particulars
4. Linguistic Arguments for Abstracta
5. Changing Things
6. Worlds, Objects and Structure
7. Meaning, Truth and Metaphysics
8. Appearance and Reality
9. Substance
10. Essence and Accident
11. Space and Time
Books Recommended
1. Aune, Bruce, Metaphysics: The Elements. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
2. Carr, Brian, Metaphysics: An Introduction. London: MacMillan, 1987.
3. Michael J. Loux [1998], Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduciton. Routledge.
4. John F. Post [1991], Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduciton. Paragon House, NY.
Modern Philosophical Movements
Wiki, A philosophical movement is either the appearance or increased popularity of a specific school of philosophy, or a fairly broad but identifiable sea-change in philosophical thought on a particular subject. Major philosophical movements are often characterized with reference to the nation, language, or historical era in which they arose. (Wiki ends)
Some popular modern philosophical movements are,
- Logical Positivism:
Turning Point Philosophy
Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language
Criterion of Verifiability
- Dialectical Materialism:
Matter, Dialectics
Historical Materialism
Theory of Knowledge
- Existentialism:
Husserl’s Phenomenological Method
Man in the World, Man and Fellow Man
Man and God
Death (with special reference to Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre)
- Conceptual Analysis:
Word-meaning
Sentence-meaning
Vagueness
Private Ordinary Language
Book Recommended
1. Action, H. B., The Illusion of the Epoch. 2nd edition. Cohen & west, 1962.
2. Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, 2nd ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1962.
3. Ayer, A. J. (ed.), Logical Positivism. New York: The Free Press, 1959.
4. Barrett, W., Irrational Man. New York: Double Day /co. 1968.
5. Blackham, H. J., Six Existentialist Thinkers. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961.
6. Caton, C. E., Philosophy and Ordinary Language. Urbana University of Illinois Press, 1963.
7. Grossmann, Reinhardt, Phenomenology and Existentialism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
8. Kolakowski, L., Main Currents of Marxism. 3 Volumes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
9. Lichtheim, G., Marxism; An Historical and Critical Study. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961.
10. Nadeem, Javed I., Lahore: Victory Book Bank, 1989.
11. Passmore, J., A Hundred Years of Philosophy. Penguin Books, 1966.
12. Qadir, C. A., Logical Positivism. Lahore: Pakistan Philosophical Congress, 1965.