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metaphysics

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metaphysics

Branch of philosophy that deals with first principles, in particular ‘being’ (ontology) and ‘knowing’ (epistemology), and that is concerned with the ultimate nature of reality. It has been maintained that no certain knowledge of metaphysical questions is possible.

Epistemology, or the study of how we know, lies at the threshold of the subject. Metaphysics is concerned with the nature and origin of existence and of mind, the interaction between them, the meaning of time and space, causation, determinism and free will, personality and the self, arguments for belief in God, and human immortality. The foundations of metaphysics were laid by Plato and Aristotle. St Thomas Aquinas, basing himself on Aristotle, produced a metaphysical structure that is accepted by the Catholic Church. The subject has been advanced by René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, George Berkeley, David Hume, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, G W F Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Karl Marx; and in the 20th century by Henri Bergson, F H Bradley, Benedetto Croce, John McTaggart, Alfred North Whitehead, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Granted this horrible picture you have drawn, yet you must confess that metaphysics was inherently potent in so far as it drew humanity out of this dark period and on into the illumination of the succeeding centuries.
The Iron Heel by London, Jack View in context
There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the Philebus and in the Sophist; the Politicus or Statesman is more ideal; the form and institutions of the State are more clearly drawn out in the Laws; as works of art, the Symposium and the Protagoras are of higher excellence.
The Republic by Plato View in context
Katavasov was very fond of discussing metaphysics, having derived his notions from natural science writers who had never studied metaphysics, and in Moscow Levin had had many arguments with him of late.
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo View in context
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