metaphysics
/mɛtəˈfɪzɪks/ noun
- noun (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 (Latin: ens in quantum ens). “Philosophers sometimes say that metaphysics is the study of the ultimate nature of the universe.”
- noun (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. “The metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas holds that all real beings have both essence and existence.”
- noun (logic, uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) The metalogic of physics; the logical framework of physics.
- noun (uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) Any fundamental principles or rules.
- noun (uncountable) The study of a supersensual realm or of phenomena which transcend the physical world. “I have a collection of books on metaphysics, covering astral projection, reincarnation, and communication with spirits.”
- noun (uncountable, derogatory) Displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject. “This political polemic strikes me as a protracted piece of overwrought, fog-shrouded metaphysics!”
Etymology
1560s; plural of metaphysic, from Middle English methaphesik, methaphisik, methaphisique, metaphesyk, methafisik, metaphesyk, methephysyk, from Old French metafisique, methaphisique and Medieval Latin metaphysica, methephisica, from Byzantine Greek μεταφυσικά (metaphusiká), from the title of the collection by Aristotle μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (metà tà phusiká, “Following The Natural World”), a collection that comes after (μετά (metá)) Aristotle's collection entitled τὰ φυσικά (tà phusiká, “The Natural World”), from φυσικός (phusikós, “natural”). By surface analysis, meta- + physics.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology.
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “metaphysics”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details