Metaphysics: Ontology, Epistemology, and the Concept of God

Metaphysics: Ontology and Epistemology

The transition from ontology to epistemology involves two fundamental concepts, two categories that ontology should clarify: real and unreal.

This leads us into the second part of metaphysics, epistemology, also known as the theory of knowledge, which studies the relations between the knower and the known object.

Understanding Reality: Real vs. Unreal

Real is that which exists independently of what someone is experiencing or knowing. What exists can impose limitations. Physical phenomena are considered real.

Conscious phenomena, for example, are not real in the same sense as a physical body. They exist only while one is consciously aware of them. Appearance introduces a new form of reality. It seems that, compared to material reality, we must admit a mental reality: conscious phenomena. These are mental realities.

Since Descartes, these mentally aware realities, alongside physical realities, were considered the clearest and most evident. Hence, the principle that all knowledge was based on the affirmation: “I think, therefore I exist.”

Our mental experiences always have a content, an object. Human consciousness was to be the starting point, because everything else occurs within it. Therefore, when speaking of beings, there are two separate categories:

• Actual consciousness
• Intentional beings that are given in consciousness

Everything we have in our mind exists irreally within it. However, these representations relate to real things that exist independently of us, and other ideal things that only exist if we are thinking.

God as an Ontological Problem

The study of God: In the world of images, ideas, and theories, we find a concept of great importance: God. For many people, God appears in their consciousness as a real being, absolutely evident.

Mystics of all religions state that they have direct experience of divine reality. For religious people, belief in God is the foundation of their world and the supreme personal power. God, who, for Christianity, is a personal being, contrasts with Hinduism or Buddhism, where God is often an impersonal being.

Theology: The Science of God

The term “Theology” comes from Greek theos (God) and logos (science), which is the science of God.

Traditionally, there has been talk of two types of theology:

• Supernatural Theology: Based on experiences or revelations, and therefore, not philosophy.
• Natural Theology: Based on reason alone, and which is a part of ontology.

Goals of Natural Theology

1. To find out if God exists; that is, if the clear evidence many people have is part of their autobiographical realm of personal truths, or if it is considered a universally verifiable truth.
2. To study what kind of being God is, in case its real existence is demonstrated.