[These notes are adapted from Autonomist Philosophy Series, which is quite long and more than most people will want to wade through; but metaphysics is the fundamental branch of philosophy on which all other branches are grounded. Epistemology rests on certain metaphysical assumptions, such as the fact, if reality is to be known, it must have the kind of nature that is knowable. These notes provide a quick reference to some metaphysical and ontological concepts important to epistemology.]

First Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the philosophical study of existence; it answers the questions, "what is there and what is its nature?" But metaphysics cannot be fully understood if we do not know what knowledge is or how we know the principles of metaphysics are true. That requires epistemolovy.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge; it answers the questions, "what is knowledge and how do we acquire it." But epistemology cannot be fully understood without reference to what knowledge is about, that is, existence. That requires metaphysics.

The problem is where to begin. We cannot study metaphysics and epistemology simultaneously. While investigating one branch we have to assume some things from the other. This is not very important, so long as we do not forget, at the end, what we say about one branch must not contradict what we have said about the other.

Epistemology is the most important branch of philosophy. It is in fact, the essence of philosophy itself, and the ultimate reason for it. But I do not begin there, I begin with metaphysics.

The reason I begin with metaphysics is because it is the "basic" branch of philosophy, the foundation on which all the other branches rest. To understand knowledge itself we must understand what it is we know about. What is, logically precedes what is known, because it is the, "what is," that is "the known," and the knower just happens to be one of the things that comprises "what is." Existence precedes everything else, and our understanding of it precedes all other knowledge, including all other branches of philosophy.

Reality and Existence

Metaphysics is sometimes referred to as the study of the nature of reality. Reality and existence actually have the same meaning, in terms of what they refer to, the difference is in their connotation or intention.

Existence means all that exists, without regard to its mode of existence. Reality also means all the exists, but always implies the mode of existence. Pains and rocks both really exist, but they do not exist in the same way. Pains exist a conscious percepts; rocks exist as physical entities. The essential difference in the meaning of these two words is this: Existence refers to all that there is, without reference to the nature of what is or manner in which it exists. Reality also refers to all that there is, but explicitly includes in its meaning, the nature or mode of existence of every existent. Both terms, existence and reality, include every entity, every event, every quality, and every idea there is, but reality always implies the specific the mode of existence of those things it includes.. It includes fictional things as fictions, hallucinations as hallucinations, historical things as historical things, and material things as material things. Reality does not include fictions (such as Santa Claus) as material or historical facts. It does include the fact that Santa Claus is a common fiction used for the enjoyment of children at the Christmas season. Material Existence

Material existence includes all that exists independent of anyone's knowledge or consciousness of it—it includes the physical, the living, the conscious, and the volitional. No consciousness exits independent of itself, of course, but it is independent of all others.

The physical is all that we are directly conscious of, that is perceive; it is all we do or can, directly or indirectly, see, hear, feel, smell, and taste and is the subject of the physical sciences. We cannot directly perceive life, consciousness, or volition.

Life, consciousness, and volition are attributes of material existents, but not physical attributes. All the physical attributes of exitents can be described in terms of position (direction, distance), motion (velocity, time), and accleration (mass, energy). Every physical existent has all these attributes, but, conceptually, there is a hierarchical differentiating relationship between them.

Every physical existent has some position relative to every other physical existent which can be described in terms of its direction and distance from all other existents. There is no physical limit to how many different positional qualities there are and no limit to the complexity of their arrangement. Notice, that no matter how many different positions are described, or however they are organized, no arrangement of position can give rise to motion.

Metaphysically, motion requires something more than a mere arrangement of positions, which on their own is all they are capable of, motion requires another kind attribute, a new level of differentiation, change of posiiton. In the same way, no arrangement of positions can give rise to motion, no arrangment of motions can give rise to acceleration. Acceleration again requires a new level of differentiation, change of motion. [Differentiation here is not meant in the sense used in the Calculus, it means to make different.]

All material existents have all the physical characteristics, and they are all implied by the physical attribute mass, which is described in terms of acceleration, which is a change in motion, which is a change in position. Just as no arrangement of motions can give rise to acceleration, no arrangement of the physical attributes can give rise to that attribute of organisms which distinguishes organisms from mere "dead" physical entities, the attribute life.

Life is another level of differentiation. While the physical attributes of material existents are all available in some way to perception, life is not—it is not a physical attribute, though it is a meterial one, because it exists independently of our consciousness or awareness of it. Consciousness itself is a level of differentiation above life, and volition is a level of differentiation about consciousness. Just as you cannot have acceleration without motion, you cannot have volition without consciousness or consciousness without life or life without the physical aspects of the organism.

Because living organisms are material existents, the attributes, life, consciousness, and volition, cannot exist independently of the physical organisms they are attributes of, but they are not physical attributes; the are material attributes that make an organism a living entity, a conscious one if it is conscious, and a volitional one if it is a human being.

Material Existents - The Principles of Identity

Metaphysically, existence consists of everything that exists, without regard to its mode of existence. Ontologically, existence consists of material existents. All other things that are sometimes thought of as material existents, qualities, events, and relationships, are not themselves existents, but aspects of material existents with no existence independent of those existents. Qualities are qualities of existents, events are the behavior of existents, and relationships are between existents; there are no other qualities, events, or relationships. [Relationships are also a kind of quality.]

Every existent has an identity, which means, it is an independent existent distinct from all other existents, or as Aristotle first expresses it, A is A, or, a thing is what it is. But what exactly is a thing's identity? "A is A," is fine, but what exactly is A? A thing certainly is what it is, but what is a thing anyway?

There are three necessary conditions that determine any existent's identity, qualities, difference, and relationship. These may be stated as principles: the necessity of qualities, the necessity of difference, and the necessity of relationship. By necessity is meant the fact all three principles are true of all existents and there can be no existent of which all three are not true.

These principles may seem simplistic, even obvious; yet it is their very simplicity and obviousness that makes them so easily neglected, and that neglect is the reason for many mistakes in the field of ontology, indeed, all of philosophy. These principles are corollaries of the axiomatic concept, existence.

(1) The Necessity of Qualities—Anything that exists must have some qualities.

[NOTE: By qualities, I mean all of an entity's properties, attributes, and characteristics.]

It is true of all existents, not just material ones, that a thing is whatever all of its qualities are. Note, however, the qualities do not make a thing what it is, the qualities are what they are because a thing is what it is. Identifying a thing's qualities (an epistemological function) is not identifying why a thing is what it is, only what it is.

For example, the redness, elasticity, and roundness of a red rubber ball are the qualities if the red rubber ball, but they are not things impressed on or added to something else that somehow transforms it into a red rubber ball, the qualities are simply the qualities of a red rubber ball, and have no independent meaning or existence apart from it. If there were never anything elastic, or red, or round, none of those qualities would exist.

An entity's identity, ontologically, is all of it's qualities. This must not be confused with an existent's epistemological identity, which is dependent on what is known about it. The entity identified, both ontologically and epistemologically is the same entity. An entity is what it is regardless of how much is known or not known about it epistemologically.

(2) The Necessity of Difference—Anything that exists must be different in some way from everything else that exists. No two things can be identical in every way.

This seemingly obvious corollary has important consequences. It is obvious if there are two things, something must make them different, else they would not be two things. Since it is an existent's qualities that determine what an existent is, if existents are different (which they must be) they must have at least one quality which is different.

Therefore, since, "anything that exists must have some qualities (1) and "anything that exists must be different in some way from everything else that exists" (2) and it is a thing's qualities that determine what it is, this principle may be restated this way:

Every existent has some quality or combination of qualities which is different from some quality or combination of qualities of every other existent.

This principle is very important to the nature of concepts in epistemology.

(3) The Necessity of Relationship—Anything that exists must have some relationship to everything else that exists. Nothing can exist that does not have some relationship to everything else that exists.

This corollary is actually the converse of the previous. It really says: everything that exists must share some quality or qualities with everything else that exists. Nothing can be totally independent or unique.

This is the least obvious of the three corollaries. If there could be something that shared no qualities whatsoever with anything else that exists, it could not possibly have any relationship to anything else that exists. It could not have any spatial relationships, because it would then have spatial qualities, it could have no physical relationship, because it would then have physical qualities, and it could have perceptual relationships (ones that can be perceived), because it would then have perceptual qualities. If a thing has any relationship with any other existent, whatever the relationship is, there is some common quality or characteristic which that relationship represents a variation of.

This corollary contradicts all of those mystical and pseudo-scientific notions of other worlds and other existences, for example. There is only existence and whatever exists is part of that existence and has some relationship to everything else that exists. What is thought to have no relationship at all to anything that exists, cannot itself exist.