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Philosophy vocabulary · Metaphysics

Metaphysics

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˌmetəˈfɪzɪks/nounCore term

In philosophy, metaphysics means: The branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality: what exists, what things are, and ideas such as time, cause, identity and possibility.

In Turkish: metafizik

How it is used

Takes a singular verb (metaphysics is). In academic philosophy it is a rigorous technical field; in bookshops the word is sometimes used for spiritual or occult topics, which is not what philosophers mean.

Example sentences

  1. Whether numbers really exist is a question for metaphysics, not for mathematics.

  2. Aristotle's Metaphysics got its title from later editors, not from Aristotle himself.

Common collocations

  • analytic metaphysics
  • the metaphysics of time
  • metaphysical question
  • metaphysical realism
  • ontologyThe part of metaphysics that studies what exists and what basic kinds of things there are, such as objects, properties, events or numbers.
  • existenceThe fact or state of being real or being there at all, as opposed to not being; in existentialism, also the concrete life of a human being.
  • causationThe relation between a cause and its effect, in which one event or state brings about another.
  • substanceIn metaphysics, something that exists in its own right and has properties, rather than being a property of something else.

More terms: Metaphysics

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