Metaphysics & Epistemology

Lauren Taylor

Dr. Vasey

PHIL 101

21 July 2016

Philosophy 101 Final Essay

Metaphysics and epistemology are two of the four aspects that comprise philosophy (along with ethics and logic). Metaphysics deals with the study of the nature of reality and what is. Epistemology is concerned with knowledge. However, there is a natural correlation of the two terms. In one’s attempt to give an account of what knowledge is (epistemology), he must draw upon assumptions of what there is and what it is like (metaphysics).

Metaphysics is the inquiry and study of the question of the nature of what is and reality. Metaphysics seeks to answer questions about being, such as what is there and what is it like. Metaphysics deals with abstract concepts such as time, property, and space. Metaphysics considers people and things and animals, etc., and seeks to establish that they are something. Furthermore, it questions what it means to be a person or a specific thing or even an animal. Then the nature of these things or beings is examined to figure out what they are like. Metaphysics inquires into the substance of a being, what the soul is and what it means to be.

Dualism is an example of a metaphysical belief. Metaphysical dualism is the belief that there are two types of reality: a physical reality and a spiritual reality. Also known as the mind-body problem, Descartes wrote on this theory in Meditation 6 of Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. In Meditation 6, Descartes poses the question as to whether material things do exist or if sensory perceptions deceive humans into believing that they do exist when, in fact, they do not. The argument within the mind-body problem is that the body is a physical thing while the mind and soul is non-physical, so how are mental states (thinking, beliefs) related to physical states? Descartes compares imagination with pure intellection; imagining is using the mind to conjure images almost as if they were present. Imagining is not required for the mind to exist because what is imagined is based on prior sensory perceptions. Pure reason from the mind is what allows Descartes to understand that his body is, in fact, his own. Descartes contends that the body is much like a machine and is divisible, yet the mind is indivisible and finite. One’s mind is not affected by all parts of one’s body; rather, common sense is affected by the body.

Epistemology is the concern and theory of knowledge. Epistemology covers and address the questions of what knowledge consists of, what is the nature of knowledge, what does it take to acquire knowledge, and what is the thing that acquires knowledge. An important aspect of this study is to consider can one acquire knowledge of reality, and if so, how? The belief in rationalism is an epistemological one. Epistemology seeks to determine truth from false and to give a reason to believe in knowledge and thought. However, where this concept can become confusing is when one asks “what acquires knowledge”, the answer may often be that the mind acquires knowledge, but this would be a metaphysical belief in Western tradition (the mind-body problem where bodies act rather than know).

An example of this would be in Meditation Two, where Descartes contends that to know something is an action of the mind rather than senses. He believed that sensory perceptions are deceiving to the mind, so they must not be trusted. Through his Wax argument, Descartes worked to prove his distrust of the senses. When one is to first make note of it, the wax was cold, hard, would emit a sound if knocked on, and had a scent of the flowers from which it came. Then, when it is held over a fire, the physical properties changed, and the wax became a hot liquid, the color and shape changed as it melted from a solid property to a liquid, and the scent vanished. However, despite this drastic change, it is indisputable that both the original wax and the melted wax are still both wax. Therefore, the properties that determine a thing’s being, in this case, what makes wax, wax, is indeterminable through the senses and imagination; it must be done by pure reason.

In Of Personal Identity, David Hume argues that the human body and the idea of self is not conscious awareness or an idea. The mind is much like a theatre, where perceptions will make appearances successively and then fade out. However, we only have the ability to perceive these using senses, rather than being able to perceive our own self (metaphysical).

Hume was also the man to say that epistemology and metaphysics were no longer viable enough, so philosophy had to find a new job to survive through a new era because of scientific discoveries and advanced in industry which had revolutionized the thoughts and way people viewed subjects such as the existence of God and human freedoms. Immanuel Kant proposed the new philosophy by saying that empiricism and rationalism were both right and wrong; he believed that the mind is active and it shapes the world of experience (transcendental idealism). With both Hume and Kant, one can see that the shift of philosophy has settled on examining social and political freedoms of humans as the focus.

Epistemology relies on sensory perceptions and identifying characteristics. This is a more scientific branch of philosophy. Metaphysics is dependent on this aspect of epistemology to rationalize what is said to exist. Metaphysics focuses on what is present and existing in the physical realm. Metaphysics cannot always be proven by ration or science, which is why some may say that is meaningless due to a lack of empirical evidence. For example, one cannot prove whether a god(s) exist through science, which is why ration through epistemology can be used in this situation.

I think that the issue of race and skin color can provide a good example of the importance of metaphysics and epistemology. We can begin with what we know based on sensory perceptions. Skin color is metaphysical. We perceive the human being and the color of his skin. We know that he is something. The questions of metaphysics ask what it means to be: human, male or female, and, fairly enough, the differences in skin color are to be noticed as well. So, logically, it will be asked: what do these differences mean? (We now know that pigmentation has to do with genetics and geographical location). But this fact was not always known, and the nature of acquiring this knowledge is an example of epistemology.

The meanings and boundaries associated with the color of one’s skin have been socially created and do not have basis in biology. Racial assignment is metaphysical because it is determined by what one sees. Race is also a social construct because of the fact that the color of one’s skin does not hold any true meaning other than the fact that their skin is a certain color. Charles Mills argues that race is epistemological because there is an epistemology of ignorance surrounding race. Skin color has come to have a political and social meaning due to the Eurocentric view that dominated throughout history. White people were seen as entitled and more deserving than non-white people; therefore, one with a skin color other than white was placed into a lower socioeconomic class with a negative stigma.

Epistemologically speaking, one may consider the variation of skin color and ask how this came to be. A knower is trying to acquire knowledge of the reality of skin color. In the 1900s, one came to acquire knowledge of skin color and race through tests such as weighing one’s brain or examining physical characteristics like jaw line and then gave a meaning to their findings. The meanings assigned correlated with the social stigma surrounding race (and this is where the metaphor of gender and race for the other came into practice as well). Women and nonwhite people were seen as lesser, so when it was shown that women and blacks had a more similar structure, blacks were viewed as feminine, more emotional, and less rational than whites.

Skin color is real; it is perceivable. Race, however, is a construct and an illusion. The illusion of race, the associations and stereotypes that one has in their mind about the color of a person’s skin, is brought to life through the thoughts, words, and actions about the meaning of skin color. If we stopped talking about race and acting differently towards people of a certain skin color, would it lose its socially constructed meaning?

Perceptions and thoughts are clearly closely related, but I think it is possible and important for the two to be viewed both independently and together. Because of the interconnection and reliance on the other, the arguments of philosophy are able to be almost wholly examined and debated. Although the focus of philosophy has shifted away from the metaphysical/epistemological, the two are still important areas of study for examining the world around us by deciphering truth from knowledge and, ideally, leading to a logical, ethical, and objective study.