Metaphysics & Ontology

Metaphysics & Ontology#

Revised

14 Jul 2023

Aristotle and Ontology#

Metaphysics: comes with or after (meta) the study of nature (phusis).

Ontology is the account (logos) of being (on).

  • What is change? How does it contribute to ontology?

  • What is being? the principles of being

  • What sort of being does change have? the being of change

  • What does change tell us about being?

Certain things must be true of being for change to exist. For change to exist, what must being be like?

  • Change has a different sort of being than objects do: being is diverse in kind

  • The being of change is the same as everything else: being cannot be defined as something unchanging

concepts

  • material

  • form

  • potency

  • activity

  • fulfillment

  • source

Ontology of change

  1. being is many in aspect

  2. being a source of change (potency) vs the accomplishment (telos) toward which that thing is oriented (activity)

I Physics I

  • sources are ontologically multiple

  • analysis of coming-to-be (genesis)

  • Monists: change is the coming-to-be of something that was not, but since nothing can come from non being, and what already is in being cannot come to be what it already is, change must be impossible; it mixes being and non being

  • the monists generalized all difference by conflating it with non being: all that is must be the same

  • three elements of change: form, material, privation

  • a particular form comes-to-be out of what is, and its predecessor only happens not to be that form

  • categorical being is multiple

II Physics III.1-2

  • Aristotle’s definition of, and argument for, change

[1] To define change, a distinction between categorical being and energetic being

[2] potent being (to dunamei on) is an independent being that remains itself even when it is actively at work

[3] The definition of change doubles as a demonstration of its existence

Figures#

  • [W] Armstrong, David (1926-2014)

  • [W] Brentano, Franz (1838-1970)

  • [W] Castañeda, Héctor-Neri (1924-1991)

  • [W] Dummett, Michael (1925-2011)

  • [W] Fitelson, Branden (1969-)

  • [W] Hartmann, Nicolai (1882-1950)

  • [W] Hume, David (1711-1776)

  • [W] Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)

  • [W] Heidegger, Martin (1889-1976)

    • [W] (1927) Being and Time

  • [W] Meinong, Alexius (1853-1920)

  • [W] Zalta, Edward (1952-)

Terms#

  • [W] Abstract

  • [W] Abstract Object Theory

  • [W] Accident

  • [W] Actualism

  • [W] Actuality

  • [W] Alethic Modality

  • [W] Anti Realism

  • [W] Anti Reductionism

  • [W] Bundle Theory

  • [W] Causality

  • [W] Class, knowledge representation

  • [W] Compositional Object

  • [W] Concrete

  • [W] Dasein

  • [W] Domain of Discourse

  • [W] Emergence

  • [W] Endurantism

  • [W] Energy

  • [W] Essence

  • [W] Eternalism

  • [W] Event

  • [W] Existence

  • [W] Fact

  • [W] Force

  • [W] Formal Ontology

  • [W] Four-Dimensionalism

  • [W] Fundamental Ontology

  • [W] Genus

  • [W] Grounding

  • [W] Gunk

  • [W] Idealism

  • [W] Identity

  • [W] Integrative Level

  • [W] Matter

  • [W] Meontology [μη “non”]

  • [W] Mereological Essentialism

  • [W] Mereological Nihilism

  • [W][S] Mereology [μερος “part”]

  • [W] Mereotopology

  • [W] Meron

  • [W] Meronomy

  • [W] Meronymy [μερος “part” ονυμα “name”]

  • [W] Metaontology

  • [W] Metaphysics

  • [W] Modal Realism

  • [W] Modality

  • [W] Monad

  • [W] Monism

  • [W] Motion

  • [W] Nominalism

  • [W] Noneism

  • [W] Nonexistent Object

  • [W] Noumenon [νοουμενον]

  • [W] Object

  • [W] Object of the Mind

  • [W] Ontic [οντος “of that which is”]

  • [W] Ontological Commitment

  • [W] Ontologism

  • [W] Ontology

  • [W] Ontology, components

  • [W] Ontology, information science

  • [W] Ontology, language

  • [W] Ousia [ουσια]

  • [W] Partonomy

  • [W] Perdurantism

  • [W] Phenomenon

  • [W] Philosophical Presentism

  • [W] Philosophy of Time

  • [W] Physicalism

  • [W] Pluralism

  • [W] Possibilism

  • [W] Potentiality

  • [W] Problem of Universals

  • [W] Process Ontology

  • [W] Process Philosophy

  • [W] Property

  • [W] Possible World

  • [W] Quality

  • [W] Quantity

  • [W] Realism

  • [W] Reality

  • [W] Reductionism

  • [W] Reism

  • [W] Relation

  • [W] Simple

  • [W] Space

  • [W] Species

  • [W] State

  • [W] Subject

  • [W] Susbtance

  • [W] Substance Theory

  • [W] Temporal Parts

  • [W] Theory of Categories

  • [W] Thing-in-itself

  • [W] Time

  • [W] Trope [τροπος “turn”]

  • [W] Upper Ontology

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