2^nd Year, Semester A, 1^st Module (2A1)        

Summary:  The philosopher is interested in the different activities of man, but he also seeks to know man in his very being, that is to say above and beyond what he can do or can make and his life’s orientation and commitments.  In First Philosophy (or Metaphysics), the search is to know that which is most radical in the human person, what founds this particular person to be who they are, the discovery therefore of what is called “substance”.  This is what the intelligence is firstly made for: to know reality in its existence.

Various themes to be looked at:

• The birth of the metaphysical questions in the world of today
• What experience or intuition do I begin from in metaphysics?  Do I have experience of being?
• The judgement of existence: so simple and yet so profound
• “This is” or “I am”?
• Questioning reality in its existence

Bibliography:

Aristotle, Metaphysics: discovers from his experience those principles, the causes in reality on the level of experience.

Fr MDP, Retracing Reality, What is Metaphysics? Summary of all the Philosophy