Review "[this book] restores the view that Philosophy is primarily meant to be wisdom" -- 'The Catholic Herald', 16/03/2001 Product Description This book presents an outline of classical metaphysics, built on an examination of the five basic concepts of form, substance, existance, cause, and nature, together with an answer to the question: What are nominalism, idealism, and realism? It draws on the whole tradition of philosophy, from the ancients to contemporary writers, giving considerable attention to the criticisms of Hume and Kant, also with reference to modern natural science, and showing how questions of physics lead to metaphysics. It provides a simple explanation of Kant's basic philosophy, which may be useful to students; concludes with a brief chapter on the relevance of metaphysics for ethics; and supplies an appendix on time. It is designed to be as informative as possible about what the great philosophers said on major themes of philosophy. About the Author Father Francis Selman teaches philosophy at Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea, London. He was formerly Catholic Chaplain at Oxford University and is the author of numerous publications on philosophy and theology. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One WHAT IS METAPHYSICS? It is not easy to say what metaphysics is without using a word that seems to tell us little or no more. It will be by studying the various aspects of what this other word names that we shall come to understand what metaphysics is. We may start, then, by saying that metaphysics is about reality or what really exists. By reality, I mean the sum of everything in the world outside us, in the sense that anyone who thinks the world is unreal thinks that it is just an idea in his mind. Thinkers, however, have disagreed about what sorts of things really exist. Some have said that the only things that exist are material, others that there are also immaterial ones. The most widespread view at present is that the only things which really exist are things that natural science studies: things we can perceive with the senses, see, hear, touch and measure with instruments. This is the empiricist view, that unless something can be studied by science or verified by the senses, it does not really exist. This view leaves no room for metaphysics, since it says that there is nothing beyond what can be known by scientific inquiry; physics is sufficient without any need for metaphysics.Metaphysics is the title of one of the main works of Aristotle. It was not given this title by Aristotle himself, but comes from the time when his works were collected at the library of Alexandria in the third century B.C. - either because this work came next after his Physics in the collection, or because it is about things which lie beyond the realm of physics and natural science. The only times that Aristotle calls his metaphysics anything, it is either "first philosophy" or "theology". "Meta" means "after"and "beyond". Perhaps the easiest way to understand what metaphysics means is to leave out the prefix "meta" to begin with, and just consider physics, with which we are more familiar. The word "physics" comes from phusis, the Greek word for nature. Physics, then, was the ancient equivalent for natural science. Although we take the word "nature" for granted, the concept of nature first had to be worked out. This was the achievement of Aristotle, who defined nature as everything with its own principle of movement and rest. Movement for Aristotle primarily meant the change from one state to another, rather than motion from place to place. Natural things have a principle of change in themselves: acorns turn into oak trees and carbon crystallizes into diamonds by natural action, but copper does not turn into a kettle or clay into a pot by itself. So Aristotle said that everything is either made "by nature or by art". A sheep produces wool by nature but a glove does not come f