Before, philosophers held that when it comes to Metaphysics and all that involves it,
only logical judgements can be practical (Loux, 2017)l. Nonetheless, Kant alleged that it was
practical for Metaphysics to be fake and a priori to be legitimate. He supported his claims with
the reasoning that the main of objective of metaphysics was to discover universal truths and
facts that are essential hence being a priority. In addition to this, it also had the purpose of
expanding our knowledge concerning truths , therefore, it was synthetic (Loux, 2017). He for
instance employed the use of math as a perfect example of how this happens. For example,
through definition, a triangle is a shape enclosed by three sides. Still, the sum of its interior
angles can be found. This concept therefore extends the knowledge of triangles past just the
simple definition. (Mizrahi, 2018)
“First, as concerns the sources of metaphysical cognition, its very concept implies that
they cannot be empirical. Its principles (including not only its maxims but its basic
notions) must never be derived from experience. It must not be physical but metaphysical
knowledge, viz., knowledge lying beyond experience. It can therefore have for its basis
neither external experience, which is the source of physics proper, nor internal, which is
the basis of empirical psychology. It is therefore a priori knowledge, coming from pure
Understanding and pure reason.” noted Kant (Kant, 1962, p1)
Zhuangzi employs the use of dreams to illustrate that knowledge usually is how one
perceives things to be. He begins by explaining that what we assume to be true as a result of our
failure to comprehend that it is a dream usually changes when we wake up. He concludes that
dreaming and being awake are two distinctive perspectives on life and that the two have huge
differences when it comes to the experiences that one goes through (Lau, 2017). He furthermore
adds that at times when we are dreaming we could be interpreting the dreams too and that may
3
look like reality. However it is only when we wake up that we do realize that it was nothing but a
dream. He applies the same concept to knowledge. We totally believe what we know o be the
utmost and ultimate truth, However once our point of view is changed or rather “wake up” we
realize that our perspective of the truth has been altered and transformed (Franks, 2019).
Similarly in case one has a dream where they are a butterfly such as Zhuang zhou dreamt , one
tends to believe they are such in that particular moment but still get back to their original forms
once they wake.
However, what people tend to ignore is that when dreaming the completely convinced
that they were a butterfly. Therefore as Zhou put it, “he was not aware whether he was the one
who dreamt being a butterfly or was it the butterfly that dreamt it was Zhou.” Still there is a
difference between Zhou and the butterfly (Franks, 2019). This is so much in line with Plato’s
cave allegations. The similarity comes since both theories state that we perceive things to be true
depending on our experiences and current perspectives about life.
We however do not comprehend what lead to such processes and the things we go
through (Lau, 2017). This is so much like cave dweller who are only used to shadows yet they
are oblivious of the sun and lack the slightest idea that the sun is actually what leads to the
shadows. They only believe the shadows to be the real truth since their perspective about life has
not changed. This therefore means that we have knowledge only on what we are aware of and
not what we do not know and this all comes down to the experiences we undergo in life. The real
deal is in the fact that we are unaware that we do not know things that we are supposed to know
since we depend on our experiences to get the understanding.
Zhuangzi’s side of the story is unique in that we are unable to comprehend the whole
truth since we depend on our perspective about life experiences to show us. This can be
4
summarized as the only real truth is that we have absolutely no knowledge on anything. For
instance, what appens after death while Plato is convinces that philosophers dig into information
and carry out research hence are able to go past the shadows to discover the sun hence find the
truth.
5
References
Franks, P. (2019). From Quine to Hegel: Salomon Maimon: Alle Origini Dell’Idealismo
Tedesco, 9–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvj7wp23.4
Lau, G. W., & Ho, K. K. (2017). A Preliminary Exploration of the Influence of Greek
Philosophy on Early Childhood Education: An Application in Hong Kong. Έρευνα Στην
Εκπαίδευση, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.12681/hjre.10886
Loux, M. J. (2017). Metaphysics. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315637242
Mizrahi, M. (2018). The "Positive Argument" for Constructive Empiricism and Inference to the
Best Explanation. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 49(3), 461–466.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-018-9414-3