EDF 821-04/14

 BRANCHES OF METAPHYSICS I

ONTOLOGY AND COSMOLOGY

1. ONTOLOGY

A. Etymology

     From Greek Ontos/ons meaning Being

B. Meaning of Being

     Being is anything whatsoever that exists

C. Categories of being: Supreme general

1.      Substance

2.      Quantity

3.      Quality

4.      Habit

5.      Relation

6.      Place

7.      Time

8.      Passion

9.      Situation

10.  Act

     NB:No.1-Substance(primary and Secondary)- Does not depend on any other entity for its                 existence

     No 2-10(Accidents): Depends on other entity for existence

D. Transcendental Properties of Being

These are co-extensive with being; A Thing possesses being according to the measure and manner in which it shares in the transcendental properties.

1.      Unity

2.      Truth

3.      Goodness

E. Principles of Being

These are principles that explain  how being can be shared by so many  entities and how these many entities can  while differing from on another can still be similar as beings

i). Intrinsic Principles

v  Potency and Act:  Potency is the aptitude in a being to receive some perfection or perform an act. An act is the expression of the fully present realization of potency. In ontological order, act is prior to potency because the only source that can effect a transfer from potency o act is a being that is already in act

v  b. Essence and Existence: Essence: a mode or manner to which reality, might be fashioned. as a principle of the actual existing thing it is the element that provides a full explanation of 'what' the existent thing really is

Existence is the primary component of actuality. It is the act by which thing is present in mind or in nature

ii.)Extrinsic Principles

v  Participation refers to the structural dependency of many beings on the one being . It means to receive part of what belongs to another fully and so merely share in it e. g. Socrates shares in humanity because he does have the whole of humanity exclusively.

v  Causality:

That from which something else proceeds with dependence in being.

Types of causes:

v  Efficient cause: That by which any change is brought about in the order of execution.

v  Material cause: That out of which a new being arises-matter in regard to form

v  Formal cause: the act by which a material substratum is determined towards a new being

v  Final cause:  That because of which something is or becomes

F. Educational Implications of Ontology

a)      The ontological concept of unity is necessary in explaining educational harmony and synchronization. A well ordered Education is one whose aims, curriculum and pedagogy are manifest each other and affect each other as part  of a single whole.

b)      An educational curriculum  deals with what is real , and it is because what is real is intelligible(knowable and understandable)

c)      Unity of purpose and intention is necessary component of ensuring collegiality amongst teachers, learners, parents and the society.

d)     Cognitive dimension of Education is ultimately a participation in Truth. Further Education curriculum is valid if and only if its content focuses  reality that is truly existent

e)      Essence and Existence : The unchangeable sin the process of Educationis Essence

f)       The study of different Causes are relevant to education as follows

a.       Material cause: Learner

b.      Efficient cause: Teacher, Curriculum content

c.       Formal Cause: Pedagogy and Assessment

d.      Final Cause: Aims of Educational Outcomes, Objectives of Education

g)      Potency and act Principles can be used to explain the becoming and transitions and transformations in Educational aspects. The need of the Educational stake holder to give room and second chances to learners and to other educational decisions and processes

2. COSMOLOGY

A.Introduction

1.      Also referred to as the Philosophy of nature

2.      From Greek words ho cosmos(universe) and ho logos(Study)

3.      It is the study of material things that make up the universe

4.      It investigates the being of  bodies in two ways:

Ø  Bodies as three dimensions with breadth and , length and height

Ø  Bodies as perceived by senses  and as Possessing passive and  active properties

B. Principles of Cosmology

a. Hylemorphism

Aristotelian principle of Hylemorphism states that

1. All physical things are constituted of two internal principles.

a. Prime matter: The principle that remains throughout the change and is the passive basis of continuity and identity in the physical world. It is wholly indeterminate, incapable of separate existence but capable of existence in conjunction with form.

b. Substantial Form: Principle that is removed from actuation of its matter in every substantial change. Form is the active principle which determines the purely passive first matter, somewhat like form imposed by a sculptor makes a stature what it is. Substantial form is the internal principle which determines the very being of a corporeal substance.

2. The hyle-morphic doctrine further elucidates the distinction between potency and act, accidents and substance, essence and existence. it renders also intelligible the union in human being  of matter  and spiritual soul which is the form of the human body, but differs from other substantial forms in as much as it can exist apart from matter.

3. Subject matter of cosmology is nature which is defined as the principle or cause of motion and rest  in that in which it is primarily, by reason of itself not accidentally.

b. Motion

 Here motion refers to any kind of corporeal change; Accidental or substantial , and rest implies the attainment of the end to which the change is directed.

Motion as is studied in cosmology carries two meanings;

a. Wider meaning:  any change from one state to another

b. Strict sense: continuous and successive change...or movement. Movement is found in several different categories of being and thus elements of its definition must transcend the categories.

Apriori-ty:

Prior concepts of defining motion are those basic to being itself....potency and act.

Motion is thus viewed as situated midway between potentiality and full actuality. When a body is only in potency it is not yet in motion, when it has fully been actualized motion ceased. Motion therefore involves incomplete act. Aristole "motion is the actualization of what exists i in potency in so far as it is in potency.

Conditions for motion

For motions to occur several conditions must be filled:

a. there must be a distinction between the mover and the moved

b. the mover and the moves must be in contact

c. The mover and the moved must actuate simultaneously

The Mover is the principle and cause from which the motion proceeds and begins to exist in the moved.  There must be unmoved first mover.

c.Time and place

Place- According to Aristotle, Place is the innermost motionless boundary of what contains. Aristotle's definition construes place as a container distinct and separable from the thing contained but otherwise equal to it and corresponding to it  by part. Everybody surrounded by others is in place and this is what makes local motion a possibility, the universe as a whole not being in place cannot move locally. In this view space is a connect pt related to place. In its physical sense, it refers to fundamental dimensional quantity, against which one can describe and even measure the motions of the bodies.

Time- The number of motion according  to before and after. In other words, to grasp the reality of time one must visualize a before and after under their common aspect of their being a 'now' and count them as two 'nows', that is a now before and a now after. Time thus has the same mode of existence as motion and so everything in nature is in time inasmuch as it is connected with motion.

The investigation of radial dynamism of our universe eventually leads to the fundamental question of the ultimate source of all motion. , that is the existence of the unmoved first mover. Whatever comes to be does not spring from mere nothing, nor does it produces itself but depends for its being on some active principle called the efficient cause? The efficient cause is the mover or the active source of motion, whereas motion is an effect produced in the moved or mobile subject.

C. Educational implications of cosmology

i)        Physical reality as studied in cosmology is the foundation of Natural and Physical sciences (Biology ,Chemistry and Physics).

ii)      The Tri-dimensionality of matter as expounded in cosmology  informs the  physics principles  of solidity and matter

iii)    Perception of matter infers the experimental and observational nature of scientific research and Education. Both Cosmology and Science admit perceptibility of nature.

iv)    Scientific assumption that matter is indestructible coheres with the concept of prime matter. Prime matter remains the same despite the different forms that it may acquire.

v)      Cosmology is the most empirical aspect of metaphysics and as such it is the link between Physical sciences and Metaphysics, and by extension Philosophy.

vi)    Motion in Education: The two meanings of motion can be construed as the essence of inherent change and local motion as necessity in biological and Physical sciences. The general conception of change and development tackled in developmental psychology are necessary to explain why it is necessary that there be changes. Physical Education is an extension of local motion.

vii)  Educational programmes are time bound. This is the assumption expressed in time tables, age based education (in curriculum).   Being time bound  they are therefore cosmologically bound and being cosmologically bound they must of necessity be a succession of motions or rather activities.

vii). Space as a cosmological concept explains learning environment and spaces like classroom, laboratories, libraries, worships which in themselves are contained in the wider comos.  Proper use of space is vital in Education.

viii). Philosophical methodology allows us to expand the scope of natural science. The analysis of educational materials shows the growing student’s interest in the philosophy of cosmology.

ix) Cosmology is exclusively a section of philosophy, with its problems of being and nothing,of form and matter, of time and space, without the use of mathematics and physics. Thus, the philosophy of cosmology is part of the intellectual culture of humanity in its historical development.

 x). Its speculative nature allows us to ask questions, the answers to which are not necessary, the value of such issues lies in themselves.