Definition of ONTOLOGY in philosophy

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In this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a definition of the concept of ontologyin philosophy, a word that comes from the Greek ὄντος (entity) and λόγος (science, study, theory). Also called general metaphysicsit is the branch of philosophy that studies "being", existence and reality. Ontology has two topics of study: the first, related to the Aristotelian definition of the same as "first philosophy"Or science of"to be as to be”. In this case, it focuses on the study of "entity as entity". But there is also another essential issue: determining that supreme "entity" or "being", on which all the others depend. The first is framed within general metaphysics and the second within special metaphysics. If you want to know more about the meaning of ontology in philosophy, continue reading this lesson. We started!

Index

1. Definition of ontology in the Ancient Age
2. Definition of ontology in the Middle Ages
3. Definition of ontology in the Modern Age
4. Definition of ontology in the Contemporary Age

Aristotle defines the ontology What "first philosophy " or science of "being as being”And later, it is known by the term metaphysics. This branch of philosophy studies being as being or being in general, as well as its categories Y relations fundamental.

Among the main ontological questions to be dealt with, the problem of universal, the relationship mind and body, the matter and its properties, the space and time, the causality or the random, the existence of entitiesmental or entities abstract like numbers, etc.

Heraclitus, could be the first nominalist, according to the Platonic interpretation when he says:

"Somewhere Heraclitus says that everything moves and nothing remains, and, comparing things with the current of a river, he says that in the same river we do not bathe twice".

In order to PlatoHeraclitus affirms that everything changes, nothing remains, except the riverbed, which is always the same. By this, for Plato he is referring to logos.

In order to Platoall the Names refer to beings that exist, defending the existence of universal ideas with an extramental reality (realism). Instead, Aristotle, I would affirm that Plato is wrong. There are no universal ideas, but "formal causes." Within the sensible world it is possible to find the first cause of everything there is. The realism of the stagirite, then, is moderate.

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At first, the Scholasticismhas a single fundamental theme, God, a reality from which all the others arise, in different degrees of perfection: intelligence, soul, matter. Saint Augustine, identify God with Being, with the essence. God is the intelligent being who has created the world and all the things that exist, from the ideas that are contained in it.

Later, when Aristotle's philosophy was introduced in Europe, thanks to Arab philosophers like Averroes, among others, are beginning to be interested in the relationships between reason and faith. In order to St Thomas, the relationship of dependence between reason and faith is not as strong as for the philosophers of the first period, granting it a certain dependence, although denies the theory of "double truth”Of Averroes, according to which, there are two types of truths: reason and faith.

Finally, the philosophy separates from religion, the reason of faith, always considering the first dependent on the second. The truths of faith do not need any proof, only the truths of reason. With William of Ockham, reason is definitely separated from faith. It is the beginning of modern science. Ockham, defends that the causes should not be multiplied, which is reflected in his "principle of parsimony" or "principle of economy”, Better known as the "Ockham's razor", according to which, other things being equal, the simplest explanation is almost always the correct one.

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The German philosopher ImmanuelKant affirms offers his own definition of ontology from the concept of neo-scholasticism, stating that the Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies the a priori concepts of understanding and that are manifested in the experience.

In Kantian ontology there is a “copernican turn”, By defending that it is the subject who determines the object, placing the first at the center of the universe.

Edmund Husserl defines ontology as science of essences, and this can be formal, when it studies the formal essences or their properties or material, when it is limited to studying the modes of its objects.

Heideggertakes up the question for the "to be as to be”Aristotelian, through the question of the entity, the one that has existence, the be-there or Dasein, or what is the same, the human being. In this way, his ontology is an "analytic of existence" that seeks to find "the constitution of being of existence", its conditions of possibility, or being in its original opening.

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Ferrater Mora, J. Philosophy Dictionary. Ed. Alliance. 1999