PHIL 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Practical Philosophy, Natural Theology, Philosophical Anthropology
27 Jul 2020
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The name metaphysics means "beyond physics", and applies to what aristotle called "first philosophy". Andronicus of rhodes, in cataloguing the works of aristotle around 70 bc, called those books "metaphysics". Metaphysics studies the reality of the universe, since it has essence and act of being. The material object of metaphysics is the entire reality of the universe and its formal object is the study of the being of the universe with the corresponding intellectual habits. Furthermore, it is a knowledge that is based on the particular sciences. As we have previously pointed out, we can go beyond sensitive knowledge. In the sciences it is possible to universalize what has been experienced by dispensing with the concrete elements. Thus, for example, physics considers the qualitative and quantitative properties of matter. Mathematical abstractions, such as that of numbers, go beyond the qualitative level to which we have previously referred.
