Exam 4: The Nature of Reality

According to Eddington, the physicist sees a plank on the street as

Modern scientific theories, which postulate a complex system of elements and subatomic particles out of which everything else is made, follow the same basic strategy of explanation as

According to Immanuel Kant, space and time are aspects of the physical world that we discover through experience.

Aristotle agreed with Plato in holding that forms or substances exist in a separate world, independent of particular things in the world.

According to Descartes, Leibniz, and Berkeley, one's own ideas are the only things one can know directly.

When Bill says that idealism must be wrong because he can touch the table and feel it directly, an idealist could respond by saying that

When Anne claims that the only things we are ever aware of are our ideas of the world, then she is one step away from

Give the defining characteristics of Kant's Two Worlds: the World of Nature and the World of Actions, Morals, and Faith.

Heraclitus appears to believe that underlying all change was an eternal principle, logos, that did not change.

Write a fictional argumentative dialogue between two characters who disagree about the basic nature of reality. The two characters can defend any metaphysical viewpoint, including ones developed in Chapter 4. However, any option ought to be defended or criticized with arguments.   Aside from the option you are arguing for and against, your dialogue should address five other philosophers, and/or frameworks discussed in the chapter.   You can use these as a resource for arguments or simply as a means of clarifying your viewpoint. The dialogue can end with agreement, with agreeing to disagree, or with arriving at a new viewpoint that synthesizes their starting standpoints. You may also stage the dialogue as an oral presentation before your class, or make a video of it.

Because Leibniz believed that monads are completely independent of one another and that physical substances are illusions, he was led to conclude that

In a teleological view of the world, the world

We are forced to introduce the concept of "reality" by the distinction between

According to idealism , the basis of the existence of all things is the mind (whether our own minds or the mind of God).

What are two of the tests that are usually imposed on the notion of what is "most real"?

When Kant argues that the world is constituted by us, he means that

In the Western metaphysical tradition, there are two tests for what is "most real": that everything else depends on it, and that it is continuously being created and destroyed

Thales was the first Western philosopher to argue that the ultimate reality was air.

Give one argument for idealism.

Remembering that metaphysics is evaluative, answer question 1 on pages 104 - 105. If you are inclined to add some elements to the list, go ahead and do this.   Make sure you complete the rankings honestly: they should reflect what you actually see in your life, and not simply what you'd like to believe about yourself. Write an essay describing what you observe. Looking at the rankings, try to assess how (if at all)your viewpoint makes the two basic assumptions of Western metaphysics: that what is basically real endures change, and that basic reality forms some kind of unity. Does your metaphysical viewpoint resemble any of those developed in Chapter 4?