Essay quiz Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Quiz - Essay Example In broadest possible terms, metaphysics traditionally tries to answer a couple of basic questions: What is out there in the realms of the unknown? What is the nature of that unknown or how does it look like? A philosopher generally tries to answer these questions for general people and broaden their view about the world; for example, possibilities, cause and effect, time and space, object and their properties, and also existence. Ontology is the central branch of metaphysics that investigates the basic categories of being and their relations. Cosmetology is the other branch of metaphysics that studies the origin, nature, dynamics and fundamental structure of the universe (Capaldi, 1997). Sometimes epistemology is also considered as a central branch of metaphysics. However, it is not confirmed. As far as the â€Å"Sceptical Doubts† is concerned, there are two thinking styles or types of knowledge. Those are matters of fact and the relations of ideas. Hume believed human knowledge is either necessary or contingent. Secondly, it is an ultimate truth that there should be relations between ideas. Thirdly, matters of fact are considered as contingent truth. The inherent logical contingency does not allow inductive predictions and statements of matters of fact to amount to knowledge (Capaldi, 1997). To prove this point, Hume states that the sun will surely rise tomorrow like it does every day, and it would be absurd to think that sun will not rise the next day. With this alternative concept, metaphysics can serve as a foundation for the nature of reality but not as such for reality directly. Metaphysics offers most basic accounts that are related to the nature of things like what they are and not of things like how they are. As a step to answer the first question – we need to first differentiate between the two ways in which a statement