Plato’s Theory of Metaphysics: Dualism

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,