Document Type

Contribution to Book

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

Late antique philosophers took a great interest in metaphysics. Indeed, the discipline's very name, "metaphysics", goes back to late antiquity.1 One of the main reasons for this great interest can be found in the view - widespread in this period - that an understanding of reality is crucial for our lives and for the destiny and salvation of our souls.2 Only by contemplating and by possessing knowledge of reality - a reality that was thought to be beyond the world of our ordinary experience - is the soul in an uncorrupted state of well being. Metaphysics is precisely the discipline that aims at this understanding. It aims at explaining reality. Given the importance of understanding reality we can see why the study of metaphysics was considered to be of prime importance.

Editor

Holger Gutschmidt, Antonella Lang-Balestra, & Gianluigi Segalerba

Identifier

10.1515/9783110327137.85

Publisher

De Gruyter

City

Berlin

ISBN

9783110326710, 9783110327137

Publication Information

Substantia – Sic et Non. Eine Geschichte des Substanzbegriffs von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart

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Philosophy Commons

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