Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Metaphysics (Philosophy of Being)

Title and Definition

Philosophy explores the most fundamental categories that cannot be precisely defined, such as God, humanity, the world, society, and good. What they all have in common is their existence. Thus, the primary concern that captured the attention of philosophers was being. The term "being" is a noun derived from the verb "to be." In the sentence "Man is," a certain characteristic of man is expressed; in the sentence "Good is," it is asserted that this same characteristic pertains to good; while in the sentence "A round square does not exist," it is stated that a round square does not possess the characteristic affirmed in the previous sentences. Philosophy, like any science, is concerned with what exists, because what does not exist cannot be studied. The subject of metaphysics is precisely being as such, meaning that metaphysics attempts to answer the question of what it means to assert that something exists, and what it means to be. The first issue that needs to be clarified in the context of studying metaphysics is its name.

Questions about being have been relevant to philosophy since its inception. The first name for this science was proposed by Aristotle. In Ancient Greece, the term "philosophy" had a very broad meaning, encompassing all forms of knowledge. Aristotle distinguished different fields of knowledge, naming the science of being, as the foundation of all knowledge, "first philosophy." In contrast, he referred to all other sciences as "second philosophy." Thus, without altering the traditional meaning of "philosophy" in Antiquity, Aristotle afforded the science of being a special status and elevated it above all other sciences.

In the 1st century BCE, Andronicus of Rhodes compiled and classified Aristotle's works. He grouped them into categories and named each one. Works related to nature were called "physics" (from the Greek word "φύσις," meaning "nature"). The works Aristotle dedicated to first philosophy were placed above the works on physics and were given the technical name "metaphysics," meaning "that which is beyond physics." Although this name originated as a technical term, it became established because it aptly expresses the content of this branch of philosophy.

In the 17th century, the German scholar Rudolf Goclenius (1547—1628) proposed separating the doctrine of being from all other metaphysical questions and first named this doctrine "ontology." At the same time, the Swiss professor Jacob Lorhard (1561—1609) began using this term, and Johann Georg Walch (1693—1775) described this concept in his "Philosophical Dictionary," defining ontology as "the doctrine of being."

These three names have the same meaning, although the subject of metaphysics has changed throughout the history of philosophy according to the interests and orientations of prevailing worldviews. The subject of metaphysics is the understanding of being, its fundamental characteristics, and the relationship between being and existence.