Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence, being and the world. Arguably, metaphysics is the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the principles of things".
It asks questions like: "What is the nature of reality?", "How does the world exist, and what is its origin or source of creation?", "Does the world exist outside the mind?", "How can the incorporeal mind affect the physical body?", "If things exist, what is their objective nature?", "Is there a God (or many gods, or no god at all)?"
Originally, the Greek word "metaphysika" (literally "after physics") merely indicated that part of Aristotle's oeuvre which came, in its sequence, after those chapters which dealt with physics. Later, it was misinterpreted by Medieval commentators on the classical texts as that which is above or beyond the physical, and so over time metaphysics has effectively become the study of that which transcends physics.
Aristotle originally split his metaphysics into three main sections and these remain the main branches of metaphysics:
- Ontology (the study of being and existence, including the definition and classification of g entities, physical or mental, the nature of their properties, and the nature of change)
- Natural Theology (the study of God, including the nature of religion and the world, existence of the divine, questions about the creation, and the various other religious or spiritual issues)
- Universal Science (the study of first principles of logic and reasoning, such as the law of noncontradiction)
Metaphysics has been attacked, at different times in history, as being futile and overly vague, particularly by David Hume, Immanuel Kant and A.J. Ayer. It may be more useful to say that a metaphysical statement usually implies an idea about the world or the universe, which may seem reasonable but is ultimately not empirically verifiable, testable or provable.
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Metaphysics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. The word "metaphysics" comes from two Greek words that, together, literally mean "after or behind or among [the study of] the natural". It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle’s works into the treatise we now know by the name Metaphysics (μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, meta ta physika, lit. 'after the Physics ', another of Aristotle's works).
Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence there are. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions:
- What is there?
- What is it like?
Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, spaceand time, cause and effect, and possibility. Metaphysics is considered one of the four main branches of philosophy, along with epistemology, logic, and ethics.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Metaphysics
The first three sections of this entry examine a broad selection of problems considered to be metaphysical and discuss ways in which the purview of metaphysics has expanded over time. We shall see that the central problems of metaphysics were significantly more unified in the Ancient and Medieval eras. Which raises a question—is there any common feature that unites the problems of contemporary metaphysics? The final two sections discuss some recent theories of the nature and methodology of metaphysics. We will also consider arguments that metaphysics, however defined, is an impossible enterprise.
Outline of Metaphysics
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics:
Metaphysics – traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it,[1] although the term is not easily defined.[2]Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:[3]
- What is ultimately there?
- What is it like?
Nature of metaphysics[edit]
Metaphysics can be described as all of the following:
- Branch of philosophy – philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[4][5]Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[6]
- Academic discipline – branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.
Branches of metaphysics[edit]
-
Cosmology – a central branch of metaphysics, that studies the
origin, fundamental structure, nature, and dynamics of
the universe.
-
Physical cosmology – study of the largest-scale structures and
dynamics of the Universe and is concerned with fundamental
questions about its formation, evolution, and ultimate
fate.
- Big Bang cosmology (standard) – cosmology based on the Big Bang model of the universe. The Big Bang is a theoretical explosion from which all matter in the universe is alleged to have originated approximately 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago.
-
Non-standard cosmology – any physical cosmological model of the
universe that has been, or still is, proposed as an
alternative to the Big Bang model of standard physical
cosmology.
- Plasma cosmology – a non-standard cosmology whose central postulate is that the dynamics of ionized gases and plasmas, rather than gravity, play the dominant roles in the formation, development, and evolution of astronomical bodies and large-scale structures in the universe.
-
Religious cosmology – body of beliefs based on the historical,
mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and
traditions of creation and eschatology.
- Abrahamic cosmology – The cosmology of all Abrahamic religions, including the Biblical Cosmology of Judaism and Christianity, and Islamic Cosmology. Based on the ancient writings from each of these respective religions, it entails a conception of the Cosmos as an organised, structured entity, including its origin, order, meaning and destiny.[7][8]
- Buddhist cosmology – description of the shape and evolution of the Universe according to the Buddhist scriptures and commentaries.
- Hindu cosmology – In Hindu cosmology the universe is cyclically created and destroyed. The Hindu literature, such as Vedas, and Puranas, cite the creation of the universe. They describe the aspects of evolution, astronomy, etc.
- Jain cosmology – description of the shape and functioning of the physical and metaphysical Universe (loka) and its constituents (such as living beings, matter, space, time etc.) according to Jainism, which includes the canonical Jain texts, commentaries and the writings of the Jain philosopher-monks.
- Taoist cosmology – cosmology based on the School of Yin Yang which was headed by Zou Yan (305 BC – 240 BC). The school's tenets harmonized the concepts of the Wu Xing (Five Phases) and yin and yang. In this spirit, the universe is seen as being in a constant process of re-creating itself, as everything that exists is a mere aspect of qi, which, "condensed, becomes life; diluted, it is indefinite potential".
- Esoteric cosmology – cosmology that is an intrinsic part of an esoteric or occult system of thought. Esoteric cosmology maps out the universe with planes of existence and consciousness according to a specific worldview usually from a doctrine.
-
Physical cosmology – study of the largest-scale structures and
dynamics of the Universe and is concerned with fundamental
questions about its formation, evolution, and ultimate
fate.
-
Ontology – a central branch of metaphysics. Ontology is the
study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality,
as well as the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. In simpler terms,
ontology investigates what there is.
- Mereotopology – deals with the relations among wholes, parts, parts of parts, and the boundaries between parts.
- Meta-ontology – investigates what we are asking when we ask what there is.
- Philosophy of space and time –
- Universal science –
- Metametaphysics – branch of metaphysics concerned with the foundations of metaphysics (which is concerned primarily with the foundations of reality). It asks: "Do the questions of metaphysics really have answers? If so, are these answers substantive or just a matter of how we use words? And what is the best procedure for arriving at them—common sense? Conceptual analysis? Or assessing competing hypotheses with quasi-scientific criteria?"
-
Philosophy of religion –
-
Philosophical theology – branch of theology and metaphysics that uses
philosophical methods in developing or analyzing
theological concepts.
- Natural theology – branch of theology and metaphysics the object of which is the nature of the gods, or of the one supreme God. In monotheistic religions, this principally involves arguments about the attributes or non-attributes of God, and especially the existence of God - arguments which are purely philosophical, and do not involve recourse to any supernatural revelation.
-
Religious metaphysics
-
Sufi metaphysics
- Al Akbariyya – branch of Sufi metaphysics based on Andalusian Sufi gnostic and philosopher Ibn Arabi's teaching.
-
Sufi metaphysics
-
Philosophical theology – branch of theology and metaphysics that uses
philosophical methods in developing or analyzing
theological concepts.
- Noetic theory –
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