PHLB60H Essay 1

Running Head: METAPHYSICS BY PETER VAN INWAGEN Metaphysics by Peter van Inwagen [Student Name] [Course Title] [Instructor Name] Introduction Peter van Inwagen, the professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, has provided an interesting view of metaphysics in his book of the same title. He has attempted to answer questions that are crucial to the world of metaphysics and externality. This essay aims at explaining his ideas of sensations of the common external objects and whether or not his ideas pose a threat to Berkeley`s concept of reality of the external world and internal thoughts. Van Inwagen`s Externalism There has been much debate on the concept of externality which claims that an external world is, in fact, a reality independent of the internal mind. Peter van Inwagen, one of the leading analytic philosophers of our times, has also proposed an argument in favor of externality. In his book, Metaphysics, van Inwagen argues that "our sensation of whiteness and the property whiteness of common objects cannot be the same thing"CITATION Pet08 \p 66 \l 1033 (Inwagen, 2008, p. 66). He has made use of an elaborated example of Alice and Alfredians. He argues that the property of whiteness of an object is experienced by us through our sensations of whiteness either directly, or through the objects having it. In other words, it is the properties of the objects that cause us to experience the sensations of the property and in its absence we might not be able to experience those sensations. That being said, van Inwagen proposes that it is not necessary that our sensations of whiteness of an objects and the property of whiteness of that same object are the same thing. Van Inwagen provides another argument in support of this claim by giving the example of Alice and Alfredians. Here the author raises two very important questions. The first is whether it is the Alfredians who misperceive the world of commo...