Essay About Physical World And Plato’S Theory

Plato’s Theory of Metaphysics: Dualism
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Plato’s Theory of Metaphysics: Dualism
What is the most elementary form of existing? Can we pigeon whole existence as being
material or immaterial? To put in other words, is existence that which we can perceived or that
which lies beyond our perception as humans? This theory is known as “metaphysics”.
Metaphysics comes from the greek words, meta; meaning after and phusika; meaning
physical. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that again, deals with, the study of “Ultimate
Reality” that which is “above and beyond” the physical world. To put in the simplest of terms;
which is the most real? The world in which the five sense can perceive or the world that lies
beyond what our five senses can perceive. One of the pivotal arguments in Metaphysics is
known as the “Problem of the One and the Many”. Are we as individuals sharing this one
absolute reality or are we each experiencing our own individual realities and they are simply
interacting with one another. Is reality as we know it absolute or is it changing? Or, is it both?
The idea that Metaphysics is both is known as “Metaphysical Dualism”. In depth, Metaphysical
Dualism is by one definition; “the belief that there are two kinds of reality (again known as the
physical material world and the immaterial spiritual world.) and that both are harmonized.
Plato’s belief lied in this hypothesis of harmonization between the material world and the
immaterial world. Furthermore, Plato theorized in further detail the two tiers of metaphysics
known as the “World of Being” and the “World of Becoming”.
The World of Becoming, otherwise known as the “Sensible World” is characterized by
change and states that nothing is absolute and that life itself is a temporary state of being.
Thus making it susceptible to the most absolute laws of nature; time and space. To put it
simply; existence, as we know it is fleeting and we are only occupying this world for a time as
grim as it may sound. However, this brings to attention the counterpart of Dualism in
Metaphysics; The World of Being. The World of Being is an entirely different element.
The World of Being is a world of universal ideas that are independent of the sensible world.
Furthermore, it a world is is unchanging and eternal. If the World of Becoming can be perceived
through hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting, the World of Being cannot be
perceived by any one of these and is known simply through our reason as humans. The
ideology of the World of Being is just that in itself; being. It is not physical and thus not afflicted
by time and space. It simple “is”. Plato as a Dualist, believed in the sustainment of both. The
preservation of the perceivable and the urge to transcend beyond the perceivable. To put
simply,