Metaphysics Midterm

Why is metaphysics the highest science that we are capable of by reason?

Metaphysics studies the first principles of reality as a whole, studies being. Directed towards permanent. Because it studies the first principles it is the highest science we can acquire by reason. (Theology is above it, but comes through revelation)

How does be-ing relate to a being?

1. Be-ing (verb) is the act of to be (to be, esse)

2. Being (noun) is the essence of what a thing is

In what way are running and a runner analogous to be-ing and a being? Be prepared not only to state the analogy but explain it

1. What a runner does is run and what a being does is be

2. Be-ing as a verb is an act that makes being as a noun what it is just like running (verb) is an act that makes a runner (noun) what it is

Why is it not possible to give a strict definition of being or be-ing?

1. Being is ontologically the first of all concepts. No strict definition is possible.

2. To be a being means to be limited in some way, I am a human not a dog. There is no contraction of being in God

3. The concept of being has unity but it is imperfect

4. Being is the most common concept, there is nothing outside of being, it applies to everything.

5. Being is not a genus, or property it is not centered in the being genus animal that we are rational, we add rational to animal. Nothing can be added to being, and it cannot be broken down

6. A strict definition consists of the genus of a thing and a specific difference

7. All we can do is give descriptions of being: that which is, that was act is to be, That too which is due to be, that which has a reference to to be

Explain what it means for different uses of the same term to be related in a univocal way, an equivocal way, and an analogical way.

1. Univocal: when it is predicated of diverse things according to exactly the same concept - exactly the same meaning but different applications (palm and oak are trees) inflexible, always mean the same thing

2. Equivocal: predicated of diverse things according to an entirely different concept - a palm is a tree and I have a coin in my palm. external

3. Analogy: one and the same name is predicated of many according to concepts which are not entirely different but agree and some common point - good pizza and good car (different kind of good)

Briefly define analogy of attribution, metaphorical analogy, and analogy of proper proportionality.

1. Analogates - things that are analogous to each other

2. analogy of attribution: the nature signified by the concept is intrinsically realized in the primary analogate but attributed to the others only insofar as they have a relationship to the primary analogate. 

   1. Health in peter, healthy complexion only in so far as peter

   2. Peter is healthy, he has a healthy complexion. The concept is intrisic to healthy is not intrinsic to complexion but it is a sign of the health he has

3.  metaphorical analogy: the nature signified by the term is realized formally and intrinsically in one of the analogous and then the other or others intrinsically and virtually only with respect to the secondary characteristics such as the activity it's nature. belongs to one thing intrinsically and literally but not to the other intrinsically and literally 

   1. lion of a man

4.  analogy of proper proportionality: in an analogy of proper proportionality the nature signified by the concept is formally and intrinsically realized in each of the analogates according to proportional similarity. 

   1. (Seeing is to the eye and understanding is to the mind)

What is logical being? What is real being?

1. Logical being exists as a thought in our mind, may also exist in reality. Logical being or being of reason we mean something which has reference to “to be” only as an object of the intellect; in other words it's whole “to be” consists in being considered by the intellect.

2. Real being is any being that exists outside of our mind in reality

What is a transcendental property of being? Why is a transcendental property of being “transcendental”?

1. Transcendental property of being goes beyond being, universal: That which can be predicated of being as such and therefore of every being. Those properties of being which flow from the concept of being not only of necessity but also immediately

2. If it is a being then it has these properties

3. First concept nothing can be added to it

4. Transcendental is

   1.  that which is above the categories, ie above the supreme classes of finite being eg God

   2.  that which is found in all or at least several categories; for such a thing transcends the categories; eg change or plurality

   3.  That which can be predicated of being as such and therefore of every being.

 List the transcendentals. Include the controversial transcendental on this list too.

1. Thing - has essence

2. One- unified/unity

3. Otherness - not non-being (NOT transcendental when taken as some other thing)

   1. Principle of non-contradiction: cannot exist and not exists at the same time and in the same respect 

   2. Principle of identity: it is what it is. Its not something else and cannot be otherwise

   3. Principle of excluded middle - no middle ground between being and non–being

4. True- can be known

5. Good - perfect in some way

6. Beauty - that which pleases when seen. Integrity, harmony, clarity,

State the third argument on Handout 1. This is the argument that concludes “Every being as a being is good.”

1. If x is perfect then x is good

2. If x is a being then x is perfect

3. If x is a being then x is good

4. Therefore every being as a being is good

What is evil?

1. Non-being. Lack or absence of good.  Privation of a due good

2. corruption

State the principle of non-contradiction.

1. Principle of non-contradiction: cannot exist and not exist at the same time and in the same respect

State the principle of identity.

Principle of identity: it is what it is and is not what it is not. It's not something else and cannot be otherwise

Briefly explain metaphysical, physical, and moral identity.

1. Metaphysical identity: sameness with itself of a thing which is not subject to any changes whatsoever (only in God)

2. Physical identity:  sameness with itself of a thing whose nature remains the same although it undergoes changes in secondary respects (child to adult)

3. Moral identity: spoken of with respect to a moral body, Which is considered to remain the same as long as the same bond unites members, even if the original members have been gradually replaced by others (church, school) cooperation to achieve a goal - church, school

Briefly explain the difference between a logical and a real distinction.

1. Logical distinction: distinction exists in our minds, may also reflect something in realist but is distinct, different only in our minds - morning and evening star (exist only in the consideration of the intellect which apprehends one in the same reality by two or more concepts)

2. Real distinction: different in reality - clay and the shape of clay (exist independently of the mind)

Are things that are really distinct necessarily separable from each other?

1. Things that are really distinct are not necessarily separable for eachother

2. Real distinction: two thing have independent non-identical ontological realities

3. Separability: one can exist without the other

4. Clay and the shape of clay are distinct but cannot exist without the other

5. Essence cannot exist without existence and existence must be the existence of some essence

Define change using act and potency.

1. Change is the passage from potency to act

2. Actualization of a potency

3. Passage from could be to act

4.  Being is distinguished in respect to potency and complete reality. Being-in-Potency is the middle ground between being-an-act in non-being

5.  when something comes to be this does not mean that non-being becomes being, but merely that being in potency becomes being-in-act

6. being and change are both intelligible

Give an example of a change using act and potency.

1. Child going to an adult

2.  beings move from place to place increase in size and shape living things are born grow and die man advances in skill and learning

3.  changing is a thing in potency to that into which changes and after the change it is in act with respect that into which he changes

1. Acorn has potential to become oak and as it grows it actualizes this potential

What does it mean to say that all potency is ordered to act?

1. Everything that changes is changed by another

2. Potency is ordered to some act. Relational attribution. Ability for something

3. There cannot be potency without something that is an act

4. All potencies are ordered to some act

5. All potencies must belong to something already in act

6. The potency depends for its essence

7. Potency on its own could not exist, it must have relation to some act

Does act in itself depend in any way on potency?

1. No. but potency is dependent on act. Not all act is ordered to potency nor all act depend on potency. Act has a primacy to potency

2. The only thing that limits act is potency

How does be-ing relate to essence?

1. Be-ing as an act relates to essence and act relates to potency

What are the fundamental constituents of a being?

1. Essence and existence

   1. Whatness

   2. thatness

2. Form and matter

   1. Matter: the raw, physical substrate or potentiality from which a thing is made

   2. Form: the organizing structure, pattern, or essence that actualizes matter into a specific kind of being

3. Substance and accidents

   1. Substance: independent reality

   2. Accidents: non-essential traits that can change without change to the core substance

What are the two kinds of beings?

What is a substance?

1. The subject which accidents inhere

2.  it exists in itself and does not need to inhere in another

3.  that to whose nature is due at a “to be” in itself and not in another

What is an accident?

1. that to whose nature is due a “to be” in another as in the subject

Briefly define: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, final cause, exemplary cause.

1. A cause is an ontological principal which exercise is a positive influence upon the “to be” if something else

   1. Material cause: that from which is imminent material a thing comes into being. that from watch something is made

   2. Formal cause: the form or pattern, the definition of the essence. intrinsic form species, extrinsic the likeness of which the thing is said to be made

   3. Efficient Cause: that from which the change or resting from change first begins. First principle of change in the order of execution. Efficient cause brings something into being absolutely or changes it in some way

   4. Final Cause: the end for the sake of which a thing is done. That for the sake of which something is done. Immediate or ultimate

   5. Exemplary Cause: model, idea archetype in the mind of the creator

How do a primary and secondary cause relate to the effect that they produce?

1. A principal cause acts in virtue of its own power. if a principal cause it's absolutely independent of everything else the exercise of its causality it's called primary otherwise it is secondary

2.  apart from God all other causes are dependent

Explain what an essentially ordered causal series is. Give an example.

1. a sequence of causes and effects where each intermediate member does not have its own independent causal power, but instead acts only while it is simultaneously receiving or being actualized by the power of the cause above it in the hierarchy. If the first or primary cause stops acting, the entire series stops immediately.

2. Singing: cannot function or cause at all without the active, ongoing presence of the prior cause

3. Pool cue and balls

Explain what an accidentally ordered causal series is. Give an example.

1. a chain of causes and effects where later members do not need to borrow or receive their active causal power from the earlier members at the moment they act

2. Biological Generation (Fathers and Sons)

State the principle of causality. 

1. Cause is an ontological principle which exercises a positive influence upon the “to be” of something

2. every event or effect must have a preceding cause, meaning nothing happens or comes into being without a cause outside of itself.

State the principle of proportionate causality.

1. An efficient cause must have whatever is required to bring about its effect

2. Nothing can come from nothing

3.  every agent ask in a manner similar to it sells

4.  action follows being

5. whatever perfection or reality is present in an effect must somehow pre-exist in its total cause

   1. Formally: The cause directly possesses the property or perfection in the same way the effect does (e.g., a hot stove heating water, where the cause is itself hot)

   2. Virtually: The cause does not possess the specific form itself, but has the active power or capacity to produce it (e.g., an explosive charge imparting high velocity, or living parents begetting an offspring

   3. Eminently: The cause possesses a higher, more noble degree of the perfection, transcending the effect (e.g., an intelligent, personal first cause producing finite personal beings