Our Five Senses example essay topic

Metaphysics can be defined as an attempt to comprehend the basic characteristics of reality. It is in fact so basic that it is all inclusive, whether something is observable or not. It answers questions of what things must be like in order to exist and how to differentiate from things that seem real but are not. A common thought is that reality is defined as what we can detect from our five senses. This type of philosophy is called empiricism, which is the idea that all knowledge comes from our senses. An empiricist must therefore believe that what we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear must be real and that if we can not in fact see, touch, taste, smell, or hear something, it is definitely not real.

However, this is a problem because there are things that are real that cannot be detected by our senses. Feelings and thoughts can not be detected, so according to a true empiricist, they must not be real. Another example that is listed in the textbook is the laws of gravity (Stewart 84). This is something that is in fact proven and we can see the effects of it, but we can not see gravity itself. Once again, this would not be considered to be "real". However, there are certain things that some people consider to be real, and others consider them not to be.

This typically comes into play when discussing religion. Some people consider God to be real although they can not "sense" Him and others say that He is not real, possibly because of the fact that they can not "sense" Him. Love is another example. Many people believe that love is real, although it's not something they can see. Other people do not believe in it. Another important aspect of metaphysics is that reality is separate from our minds.

We can not affect or change things just by thinking about them. However, some metaphysicians believe that our feelings are more real than what we can sense because our feelings are first-hand and come from our body. They must in fact be real because we are more aware of them. Metaphysics basically describes what people do everyday in their lives.

People have a constant need to differentiate between what's real and what's not. In our everyday life, we are faced with appearances and materialistic things. Metaphysics can even relate to beauty. What's beautiful to one person may be repulsive to another and vice versa. Beauty is something that we can see, but it's not a physical object that can be sensed.

Does this mean that it is not real? Empirically, yes. As people get older, they can better distinguish between real and not real. As stated in the textbook, a person must balance reality and their dreams, goals, etc, because both things are important.

Fantasy, such as our dreams and goals, are part of being human and for some people, it is a purpose of life. If we only lived in "reality", there would be nothing to strive for because everyone would live based on what we know from our five senses. As long as people can keep a balance between the two, they can live a "normal" life in which they know what's real, but they can still dream. Another aspect of defining reality is that we classify things as real and not real based on previous experience and patterns.

Sometimes, even if we see something happen, we will not believe it because it is not something that we think is possible or not something that we have seen before. We go against our senses based on the fact that something out of the ordinary happened. Descartes said "cogito ergo sum" which means "I think, therefore I am". He did not believe anything that he wasn't certain of.

Immanuel Kant viewed metaphysics as a "set of guiding assumptions or hypotheses which the mind requires to make sense of the world (Stewart 92)". This could mean that the guidelines of metaphysics are not necessarily 100% true 100% of the time. However, it is what is typical, and it allows our mind to understand what is real and what is not.