Definition of metaphysics Metaphysics

/mɛˌtʌfɪˈzɪks/ - [metufiziks] - met•a•phys•ics

We found 11 definitions of metaphysics from 5 different sources.

What does metaphysics mean?

Noun Plural: metaphysics
metaphysics - the philosophical study of being and knowing
		philosophy any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation; "self-indulgence was his only philosophy"; "my father's philosophy of child-rearing was to let mother do it"
		ontology the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
		cosmology the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe

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metaphysics (Noun)
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.
metaphysics (Noun)
The view or theory of a particular philosopher or school of thinkers concerning the first principles which describe or explain all that is.
metaphysics (Noun)
Any fundamental principles or rules.
metaphysics (Noun)
The study of a supersensual realm or of phenomena which transcend the physical world.
metaphysics (Noun)
Displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.
metaphysics (Noun)
Plural of countable senses of metaphysic.

metaphysics (n.)
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.
metaphysics (n.)
Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology.

metaphysics
The branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of reality, being, and the world.

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy and is the study of the world.

It is the basis of physics and other sciences.

However, unlike other sciences, metaphysics asks very basic philosophical questions and does not look at the world directly.

A physicist might ask 'how does the world work?' but a metaphysical philosopher would ask 'what is the world?'.

Often metaphysical questions are questions about ourselves, and how we see and feel the world.

They can also be questions about what might be true and what could not be true.

By answering these questions metaphysical philosophers hope they can understand the world in a way that people who do not ask them cannot.

Many metaphysical philosophers are also physicists, such as Aristotle and Rene Descartes.

In some areas metaphysical philosophers can ask questions and find answers but physicists cannot, such as the study of time or God.

In other areas metaphysics is not very useful, such as finding out what things are made of.