Back to Reality Bites: Introduction to metaphysics
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Reality Bites: Introduction to metaphysics

Speculative metaphysics is challenging, but this course will whet your appetite for it, because it explains fundamental metaphysical problems and views in terms of what you can find in your kitchen and what happens in it when you cook and enjoy food. Here are the 8 bites on the menu. - The first module 1 explains that metaphysics is about the ingredients and recipes of the world, i.e., which kinds of entities exist and how they relate to one another. - Modules 2 and 3 invite you to reflect on whether the properties of ingredients -such as their shape and weight- are separate from and if so, how they come together in the ingredients. - Modules 4 to 7 are about cooking: its most important ingredient is time and most cooking consists in causing changes to the ingredients over time. Yet some ingredients persist: although they undergo changes, they remain the same. Moreover, cooking minimally involves putting two or more ingredients together, so that they compose a whole. Hence modules 4 to 7 deal with time, causation, persistence and composition respectively. - Finally, the last module touch on the smells, tastes and other qualitative aspects of our experiences when enjoying food. Bon appétit!

Status: Aesthetics
IntermediateCourse9 hours

Featured reviews

SM

5.0Reviewed May 14, 2024

Excellent course! Well presented. Useful and interesting. Not for beginners.

All reviews

Showing: 7 of 7

David Rintoul
4.0
Reviewed Nov 1, 2023
Ryan A Stohldrier
2.0
Reviewed Jul 5, 2024
Sladjana Milosevic
5.0
Reviewed May 15, 2024
Ivana Polović
5.0
Reviewed Jul 26, 2025
Libero Prentzas
5.0
Reviewed Aug 5, 2025
Ale Pino
4.0
Reviewed Dec 22, 2024
THOMAS ESTEBAN TABACO DUARTE
4.0
Reviewed Mar 2, 2025