Metaphysics the Human Mind Has Term Paper

Metaphysics presumes some kind of perfection somewhere, but there is no reason to presume this. Further, it presumes free will in the capacity to strive for the ideal. But Nietzsche writes, "Becoming is robbed of its innocence when any particular condition of things is traced to a will, to intentions and to responsible actions" (p. 31). People exist from fate. There is no ideal happiness or morality. There is nothing outside the whole by which a judgment could be formed or administered. There is no tracing existence to a first cause. In other words, the moral rationale by which metaphysics creates an eternal, immutable world need not be valid.

In sum, this essay has briefly analyzed Plato's theory of forms and Aristotle's prime mover. It has argued that such metaphysical notions are based as much on moral and theological concerns as on logic.Furthermore, they operate acceptably only by subordinating the physical world to the non-physical, thus de-historicizing knowledge. The essay has used some of Nietzsche's ideas to propose that there are good reasons to question the validity of such metaphysics. There are logical reasons for belief in an invisible reality if, and only if, one relies on certain moral and theological underpinnings that require the unsubstantiated prioritization of mind, invisibility, and absolute morality over body, the empirical world, and other historical forms.

Bibliography

Aristotle. (1952). Metaphysics. R. Hope, Trans. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Nietzsche, F. (1998). Twilight of the idols or how to philosophize with a hammer. D. Large, Trans. New York: Oxford University Press.

Plato. (1961). The Collected Dialogues of Plato. E. Hamilton & H. Cairns, Eds. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press......