User:Phlsph7/Metaphysics - Methods
Methodology[edit]
Metaphysicians employ a variety of methods to arrive at metaphysical theories and formulate arguments for and against them.[1] Traditionally, a priori methods are the dominant approach. They rely on rational intuition and abstract reasoning from general principles rather than sensory experience. A posteriori approaches, by contrast, ground metaphysical theories in empirical observations and scientific theories.[2] Some metaphysicians use perspectives from fields such as physics, psychology, linguistics, and history to conduct their inquiry.[3] The two approaches are not exclusive and it is possible to combine elements from both.[4] Which method a metaphysician employs often depends on their conception of the nature of metaphysics, for example, whether they see it as an inquiry into the mind-independent structure of reality, as metaphysical realists claim, or the principles underlying thought and experience, as some metaphysical anti-realists contend.[5]
A priori approaches often rely on intuitions, that is, non-inferential impressions about the correctness of specific claims or general principles.[6] For example, arguments for the A-theory of time, which states that time flows from the past through the present and into the future, often rely on pre-theoretical intuitions associated with the sense of the passage of time.[7] Some approaches use intuitions to establish a small set of self-evident fundamental principles, known as axioms, and employ deductive reasoning to build complex metaphysical systems by drawing conclusions from these axioms.[8]
Intuition-based approaches can be combined with thought experiments, which help evoke and clarify intuitions by linking them to imagined situations while using counterfactual thinking to assess the possible consequences of these situations.[9] To explore the relation between matter and consciousness, some theorists compare humans to philosophical zombies, that is, hypothetical creatures identical to humans but without conscious experience.[10] A related method relies on commonly accepted beliefs instead of intuitions to formulate arguments and theories. The common-sense approach is often used to criticize metaphysical theories that deviate a lot from how the average person thinks about an issue. For example, common-sense philosophers have argued that mereological nihilism is false since it implies that commonly accepted things, like tables, do not exist.[11]
Conceptual analysis, a method particularly prominent in analytic philosophy, aims to decompose metaphysical concepts into component parts in order to clarify their meaning and identify essential relations.[12] In phenomenology, the method of eidetic variation is used to investigate essential structures underlying phenomena. To study the essential features of any kind of object, it proceeds by imagining this object and varying its features to identify which ones are essential and cannot be changed.[13] The transcendental method is a further approach and examines the metaphysical structure of reality by observing what entities there are and studying the conditions of possibility without which these entities could not exist.[14]
Some approaches give less importance to a priori reasoning and see metaphysics instead as a practice continuous with the empirical sciences that generalizes their insights while making their underlying assumptions explicit. This approach is known as naturalized metaphysics and is closely associated with the work of Willard Van Orman Quine.[15] He relies on the idea that true sentences from the sciences and other fields have ontological commitments, that is, they imply that certain entities exist.[16] For example, if the sentence "some electrons are bonded to protons" is true then it can be used to justify that electrons and protons exist.[17] Quine used this insight to argue that one can learn about metaphysics by closely analyzing[a] scientific claims to understand what kind of metaphysical picture of the world they presuppose.[19]
In addition to methods of conducting metaphysical inquiry, there are various methodological principles used to decide between competing theories by comparing their theoretical virtues. Ockham's Razor is a well-known principle that gives preference to simple theories, in particular, to theories that assume that few entities exist. Other principles consider the explanatory power, theoretical usefulness, and proximity to established beliefs.[20]
Sources[edit]
- Brown, James Robert; Fehige, Yiftach (2019). "Thought Experiments". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
- Goffi, Jean-Yves; Roux, Sophie (2011). "On the Very Idea of a Thought Experiment". Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts. Brill: 165–191. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004201767.i-233.35. ISBN 978-90-04-20177-4. S2CID 260640180. Archived from the original on 30 October 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- Eder, Anna-Maria A.; Lawler, Insa; van Riel, Raphael (2020). "Philosophical Methods Under Scrutiny: Introduction to the Special Issue Philosophical Methods". Synthese. 197 (3): 915–923. doi:10.1007/s11229-018-02051-2. ISSN 1573-0964. S2CID 54631297.
- Khlentzos, Drew (2021). "Challenges to Metaphysical Realism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- Lawson, Joanna (2020). "Common Sense in Metaphysics". The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-47600-3.
- Effingham, Nikk; Beebee, Helen; Goff, Philip (30 November 2010). Metaphysics: The Key Concepts. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-85518-4.
- Jaksland, Rasmus (2 June 2023). "Naturalized metaphysics or displacing metaphysicians to save metaphysics". Synthese. 201 (6). doi:10.1007/s11229-023-04207-1.
- van Inwagen, Peter; Sullivan, Meghan; Bernstein, Sara (2023). "Metaphysics". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- McDaniel, Kris (10 June 2020). This Is Metaphysics: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-40077-7.
- Stern, Robert; Cheng, Tony (2023). "Transcendental Arguments". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- Pihlström, Sami (10 July 2009). Pragmatist Metaphysics: An Essay on the Ethical Grounds of Ontology. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-84706-593-3.
- Körner, Stephan (6 September 1984). Metaphysics: Its Structure and Function. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26496-9.
- Coelho, Ivo (1 January 2001). Hermeneutics and Method: The 'universal Viewpoint' in Bernard Lonergan. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-4840-0.
- Ryckman, Thomas (13 January 2005). The Reign of Relativity: Philosophy in Physics 1915-1925. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-029215-7.
- Drummond, John J. (14 March 2022). Historical Dictionary of Husserl's Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-3345-3.
- Jackson, Frank (1998). From metaphysics to ethics: a defence of conceptual analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-823618-2.
- Goldenbaum, Ursula. "Geometrical Method". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- Kirk, Robert (2023). "Zombies". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- Duignan, Brian (2009). "Intuitionism (Ethics)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- Daly, Christopher (2015). "Introduction and Historical Overview". The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophical Methods. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 1–30. doi:10.1057/9781137344557_1. ISBN 978-1-137-34455-7. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- Tahko, Tuomas E. (2015). An introduction to metametaphysics. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-07729-4.
- Mumford, Stephen (2012). Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction (1 ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-965712-4.
- Koons, Robert C.; Pickavance, Timothy H. (2015). Metaphysics: the fundamentals (1. ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-9574-4.
- Loux, Michael J.; Crisp, Thomas M. (2017). Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction (4 ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-63933-1.
- Ney, Alyssa (2014). Metaphysics: An Introduction. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-0-415-64074-9.
- Shaffer, Michael J. (2015). "The Problem of Necessary and Sufficient Conditions and Conceptual Analysis". Metaphilosophy. 46 (4/5): 555–563. doi:10.1111/meta.12158. ISSN 0026-1068. JSTOR 26602327. S2CID 148551744. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- Audi, Robert (2006). "Philosophy". In Borchert, Donald M. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 7: Oakeshott - Presupposition (2. ed.). Thomson Gale, Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-865787-5. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
- ^
- Loux & Crisp 2017, p. xi, 2
- Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
- ^
- Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
- Mumford 2012, § 10. What is metaphysics?
- Tahko 2015, pp. 151–152
- Jaksland 2023, pp. 198–199
- ^ Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
- ^ Tahko 2015, pp. 151–152, 172–173
- ^
- Mumford 2012, § 10. What is metaphysics?
- Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
- Effingham, Beebee & Goff 2010, p. 123
- Khlentzos 2021, Lead Section, § 3. The Anti-Realist Challenges to Metaphysical Realism
- ^
- Daly 2015, pp. 11–12, Introduction and Historical Overview
- Duignan 2009
- Tahko 2015, pp. 177–180
- ^ Tahko 2015, pp. 188–190
- ^ Goldenbaum, Lead section, § 1. The Geometrical Method
- ^
- Tahko 2015, pp. 177–178
- Brown & Fehige 2019, Lead Section
- Goffi & Roux 2011, pp. 165, 168–169
- Eder, Lawler & van Riel 2020, pp. 915–916
- ^ Kirk 2023, Lead Section, § 2. Zombies and physicalism
- ^
- Lawson 2020, pp. 185–186
- Jaksland 2023, pp. 198–199
- ^
- Jackson 1998, pp. 28–30
- Eder, Lawler & van Riel 2020, pp. 915
- Shaffer 2015, pp. 555–556
- Audi 2006, § Philosophical Methods
- ^
- Drummond 2022, p. 75
- Ryckman 2005, pp. 142–144
- ^
- Coelho 2001, p. 128
- Körner 1984, pp. 183–184
- Pihlström 2009, pp. 60–61
- Stern & Cheng 2023, Lead Section
- ^
- Ney 2014, pp. 30–31
- van Inwagen, Sullivan & Bernstein 2023, § 4. The Methodology of Metaphysics
- Jaksland 2023, pp. 198–199
- ^
- Ney 2014, pp. 37–38, 40
- van Inwagen, Sullivan & Bernstein 2023, § 4. The Methodology of Metaphysics
- ^ Ney 2014, pp. 41
- ^ Ney 2014, pp. 40–41
- ^
- Ney 2014, pp. 40–43
- van Inwagen, Sullivan & Bernstein 2023, § 4. The Methodology of Metaphysics
- ^
- McDaniel 2020, pp. 217–221
- Ney 2014, pp. 48–49
- Mumford 2012, § 10. What is metaphysics?
- van Inwagen, Sullivan & Bernstein 2023, § 4. The Methodology of Metaphysics
- Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
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