The renowned philosopher Immanuel Kant summarized the task of philosophy in these three questions:

He encapsulated these three questions into one foundational inquiry: What is Man?

To answer these questions, one must distinguish between three types of realities, which are amenable to three distinct types of knowledge:

1. Physical realities: quantitative, material, and measurable things that can be perceived by our bodily senses; they are, therefore, amenable to demonstrative, certain, and evident knowledge. They are the subject matter of the natural and technological sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, geology, zoology, botany, etc.). Mathematics provides the means we have devised for measurement.

2. Metaphysical realities: non-physical, qualitative, immaterial, and immeasurable things that cannot be perceived by the senses; they are, therefore, amenable to argumentative knowledge that is more or less convincing and probable. They are the subject matter of the metaphysical sciences (philosophy, religion).

3. Mixed or hybrid realities: these contain both physical and metaphysical elements; they are therefore amenable to knowledge that is partly demonstrative and partly argumentative. They are the subject matter of the social sciences (law, politics, information studies, economics, education, etc.) and the arts (painting, architecture, music, literature, etc.).

Physical or quantitative realities are composed of measurable magnitudes. Mathematics constitutes the tool our reason uses to measure such magnitudes: quantity, weight, size, force, energy, resistance, speed, etc., as well as the relationship between them.

Metaphysical or qualitative realities encompass the transcendental categories of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, since these realities cannot be grasped by our senses and are therefore neither verifiable nor reducible to mathematical terms. Knowledge of them is not susceptible to demonstration or absolute certainty. However, it is open to constant progress toward higher degrees of probability and conviction.

In other words, although our metaphysical knowledge regarding ontology, ethics, aesthetics, and religion cannot achieve the certainty of a formal proof, it can advance through our argumentative reason, aided by contributions from many other avenues of knowledge: passions, emotions, feelings, instincts, etc. (*) Herein lies the importance of philosophy for humanity.

Mixed or hybrid realities are the subject matter of the social sciences and the arts.

The social sciences deal with fundamental issues for human societies—issues comprising both a material or quantitative aspect and an immaterial or qualitative one, the latter relating to the transcendentals of Truth or Goodness. Balancing the roles of both components—the quantitative and the qualitative—within any given social science issue represents the major challenge for all social sciences. Examples include employment policy or specific individual cases, where one must consider the wage amount on the one hand, and its fairness on the other.

The arts aim to create works that embody the transcendental of Beauty.

(*) Philosophers such as Descartes and Spinoza failed to leverage these epistemological contributions, limiting themselves instead to ethical ones.

The study of the physical world is carried out by Docuplay in two large projects: EduIndustry and Biodiversity.

The metaphysical world is studied in Docuplay´s Program 11.

Philosophy

Within the philosophy program, four main parts are distinguished: Ontology, Epistemology, Ethics, and Aesthetics.

• 1. Ontology: Philosophical training will promote a change in attitude towards reality; material reality is susceptible to scientific or demonstrative, evident and universal knowledge; immaterial reality is only susceptible to argumentative, gradual, more or less credible or probable knowledge. Both material and immaterial objects (e.g. moral, aesthetic) must be approached in an unprejudiced way, free above all from the omnipresent prejudices of the right and the left.

• 2. Epistemology: It is necessary to adopt the phenomenological method created by Husserl in the early twentieth century, whose famous German motto is Zu den Sachen selbst (“To things themselves”). Xavier Zubiri formulates it this way: Leave things as they are to know them as they are.

  These metaphysical and epistemological foundations allow the commitment to the culture of effort that empowers each student to know things as they truly are in order to later operate with them in the most appropriate and mutually beneficial way. Hence the importance of philosophy for producing citizens with balanced mindsets between hard/demonstrative and soft/argumentative knowledge.

• 3. Ethics: As Docuplay’s motto clearly states—“Improve the world through Internet-powered education in all knowledge, for all people, at any age, throughout life”—perhaps the most important ethical value for this educational project is the equality of all human beings regarding their ability to access the opportunities offered by the Internet. Docuplay aspires to ensure that, through education that is increasingly autonomous and economically affordable, everyone can share in the distribution of necessary human labor hours.

• 4. Aesthetics: Consistent with ontological objectivism and epistemological realism, Docuplay embraces an aesthetic that does not absolutize subjectivism in artistic creation, but rather prioritizes reality and beauty across all artistic disciplines.

Religion

Religion addresses Kant’s third question: what can we expect after earthly life? Furthermore, religion influences human relationships with truth and goodness. Regarding Truth, religion should serve as a spur to advance our knowledge of physical and metaphysical realities, fulfilling the biblical mandate to “subdue the earth.”

The objects of study in the social sciences possess a material component that is demonstrable and capable of mathematical formulation. However, given their importance to human societies, these objects are also shaped by the transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, for ruling human conduct. These metaphysical realities are matters for argumentation; our reason can yield knowledge regarding them that is more or less probable or plausible, depending on the grounds upon which such knowledge rests.

The mixed—or physical-metaphysical—world is studied in Docuplay through two categories of programs:

• As SOCIAL SCIENCES: in Programs 2 (History: Populated Places) and 5 (Social Sciences).
• As ARTS: in Programs 11 (Fine Arts) and 12 (Literature).