METAPHYSICS

metaphysics

(noun) the philosophical study of being and knowing

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

metaphysics (countable and uncountable, plural metaphysics)

(philosophy, uncountable) The branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being (ens in quantum ens).

(philosophy, countable) The view or theory of a particular philosopher or school of thinkers concerning the first principles which describe or explain all that is.

(logic, uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) The metalogic of physics; The logical framework of physics.

(uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) Any fundamental principles or rules.

(uncountable) The study of a supersensual realm or of phenomena which transcend the physical world.

(uncountable) Displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.

Noun

metaphysics

plural of metaphysic

Meronyms

• ontology

Source: Wiktionary


Met`a*phys"ics, n. Etym: [Gr. métaphysique. See Physics. The term was first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that part of his writings which came after, or followed, the part which treated of physics.]

1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal being; ontology; also, the science of being, with reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being; phylosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.

Note: Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special. General metaphysics is the science of all being as being. Special metaphysics is the science of one kind of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of morals, or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge of which is altogether independent of experience, would constitute the science of metaphysics. Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics, as being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath that for title; but it is in another sense: for there it signifieth as much as "books written or placed after his natural philosophy." But the schools take them for "books of supernatural philosophy;" for the word metaphysic will bear both these senses. Hobbes. Now the science conversant about all such inferences of unknown being from its known manifestations, is called ontology, or metaphysics proper. Sir W. Hamilton. Metaphysics are [is] the science which determines what can and what can not be known of being, and the laws of being, a priori. Coleridge.

2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology. Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind. Sir W. Hamilton. Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not help Our physics. Mrs. Browning.

METAPHYSIC

Met`a*phys"ic, n. Etym: [Cf. F. métaphysique.]

Definition: See Metaphysics.

Met`a*phys"ic, a.

Definition: Metaphysical.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

13 January 2025

SOAK

(noun) the process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid); “a good soak put life back in the wagon”


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