Can anyone explain to me Metaphysics?

Question

metaphysics has been around quite some time, can anyone explain me its functions and its advances in physics so far?

Answer 1

When Aristotle coined the term Metaphysics, he meant that it studies questions that are outside the bounds of physics. That meaning remained for more than two thousand years. Metaphysical systems have been developed to try to explain everything in the universe, not just physical realities. In more recent tmes, the term metaphysics has been taken up by various groups (and stores!) to refer to "spiritual" (supernatural or non-natural) realities and beliefs, but in fact metaphyical does not necessarily mean only supernatural, but it can mean natural realities that are not within the scope of physics.

In contemporary British and American philosophy, Metaphysics is a term of derision, meaning grand, speculative world views having no empirical verification. There are, however, still a few people who work in metaphysics, who do work studying the basic frameworks of thinking about reality. Metaphysics may have an influence on physics and some physicists may think in metaphysical terms when they consider, for example, the basic differences between Quantum and Relativity. One of Aristotle's fundamental assumptions, for example, is metaphysical, that reality is substance, things--to be is to be a thing. That dominates Western thinking. It is the foundation of one-way causality (cause must come before effect) and "causes" us to formulate questions like what caused the big bang. Then along comes Quantum and we find phenomena that don't fit--a particle or a wave, sometimes one, sometimes another, never both. Now, is reality particle (thing) or wave (field)? Ouch! That question has occupied the attention of our greatest minds for the last nearly 100 years. I used to teach this stuff, but it's been a while, so that's the best I can do off the top of my head. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Metaphysics is a study that goes beyond physical proof. The tools of metaphysics are logic, and reason. Metaphysics starts with known physical evidence and with knowledge of the law of nature works out an understanding of things we can not directly measure. Almost all new knowledge in physics is the result of this type of thinking.

Answer 3

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with all things that CAN'T be dealt with by regular physics. All that advances in physics do to metaphysics is to shrink its possible domain of application.

Of course, many things contemplated by metaphysicists aren't likely to be superceded by physicists any time soon: the nature of reality, object or personhood, religion, and many topics that are sometimes considered 'occult'. In these pursuits tools such as logic can be useful, but sensory and other kinds of measurements are less so.

Advances in metaphysics, then, tend to be of a nature of familiarizing yourself with what other thinkers of the past have thought of these things. Some are considered now to be unreasonable, while others are still 'standard' arguments. In this sense, it can be a time-saver in the same way that studying famous chess games can help you play chess.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Metaphysics (from Greek: (meta) = "after", (physics) = "nature") is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the world. It is the study of being or reality. It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's place in the universe?
More recently, the term "metaphysics" has also been used to refer to "subjects which are beyond the physical world".
A "metaphysical bookstore," for instance, is not one that sells books on ontology, but rather one that sells books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics.

Answer 5

Woody Allen as quickly as reported: "i became thrown out of faculty for the time of my freshman 3 hundred and sixty 5 days, for dishonest on my metaphysics very final. you understand, I looked in the soul of the boy sitting next to me."

Answer 6

you just got owned dude.....

Answer 7

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the world. It is the study of being or reality.[1] It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's place in the universe?

A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what categories of things are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.

More recently, the term "metaphysics" has also been used to refer to "subjects which are beyond the physical world". A "metaphysical bookstore," for instance, is not one that sells books on ontology, but rather one that sells books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics. This meaning is not recognized in academic philosophy.





History of metaphysics
The word "metaphysics" is generally held to have come from the title given to one of Aristotle's works by the scholars of the Library of Alexandria: Metaphysics, or in Greek, μεταφυσικά.

Aristotle himself referred to the subject as "first philosophy". The name came from the way this work was filed in the Library. Among Aristotle's other works was Physics. In the Library of Alexandria, the books on first philosophy were placed right after Physics. So early Aristotelian scholars called those books τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά βιβλια, ta meta ta physika biblia, which means "the books that come after the (books about) physics."

The Metaphysics was divided into three parts, now regarded as the traditional branches of Western metaphysics, called (1) ontology, (2) theology and (3) universal science. There were also some smaller, perhaps tangential matters: a philosophical lexicon, an attempt to define philosophy in general and several extracts from the Physics repeated verbatim.

Ontology is the study of existence: the definition of entities and classes of entities, such as physical or mental entities; the nature of the properties of entities; and the nature of change.
Theology is the study of God (or the gods) and of questions about the divine.
Universal science is the study of first principles, which Aristotle believed underlie all other inquiries. An example of such a principle is the law of non-contradiction: A = A, A ≠ B, Not both A and B.
Universal science or first philosophy treats of "being qua being" — that is, what is basic to all science before one adds the particular details of any one science. This includes topics like causality, substance, species and elements. It also includes topics like relationship, interaction, finitude and a theoretically boundless infinity.

Metaphysics as a discipline was a central part of academic inquiry and scholarly education even before the age of Aristotle. Long considered "the Queen of Sciences," its issues were considered no less important than the other main formal subjects of physical science, medicine, mathematics, poetics and music. Since the Age of Reason, problems that were not originally considered metaphysical have been added to metaphysics. Other problems that were considered metaphysical problems for centuries are now typically relegated to their own separate subheadings in philosophy, such as philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. In some cases subjects of metaphysical research have been found to be entirely physical and natural, thus making them part of physics.


Central questions of metaphysics
Most positions that can be taken with regards to any of the following questions are endorsed by one or another notable philosopher. It is often difficult to frame the questions in a non-controversial manner.


Particulars and universals
The world seems to contain many individual things, both physical, like apples, and abstract such as the British constitution, Greek democracy, and the number "3." Such objects are called particulars. Now, consider two apples. There seem to be many ways in which those two apples are similar, they may be approximately the same size, or shape, or color. They are both fruit, etc. One might also say that the two apples seem to have some thing or things in common. Universals or Properties are said to be those things.

Metaphysicians working on questions about universals or particulars are interested in the nature of objects and their properties, and the relationship between the two. For instance, one might hold that properties are abstract objects, existing outside of space and time, to which particular objects bear special relations. Others maintain that what particulars are is a bundle or collection of properties (specifically, a bundle of properties they have).


Change and identity
Identity, sometimes called Numerical Identity, is the relation that everything bears to itself, and which nothing bears to anything other than itself. According to Leibniz, if some object x is identical to some object y, then any property that x has, y will have also. However, it seems to us that objects can change over time. If you were to look at a tree one day, and the tree later lost a leaf, it would seem that you could still go look at that same tree. Metaphysicians work to explain what it means for the same object to have different properties at different times, as well as the question of how objects persist through time. (See Also: identity and change)


Space and time
This apple exists in space (it sits on a table in a room) and in time (it was not on the table a week ago and it will not be on the table a week from now). But what does this talk of space and time mean? Can we say, for example, that space is like an invisible three-dimensional grid in which the apple is located? Suppose the apple and every other physical object in the universe were to be entirely removed from existence: then would space, that "invisible grid," still exist? René Descartes believed not—he thought that without physical objects, space would not exist, because space is the framework in which we understand how physical objects are related to each other.[2] There are, however, many other metaphysical questions to ask about space and time.


Necessity and possibility
Metaphysicians investigate questions about the ways the world could have been. David Lewis, in "On the Plurality of Worlds," endorsed a view called Concrete Modal Realism, according to which facts about how things could have been are made true by other concrete worlds, just like ours, in which things are different. Other philosophers, such as Gottfried Leibniz have dealt with the idea of possible worlds as well. The idea of necessity is that any necessary fact is true across all possible worlds; that is, we could not imagine it to be otherwise. A possible fact is one that is true in some possible world, even if not in the actual world. For example, it is possible that cats could have had two tails, or that any particular apple could have not existed. By contrast, certain truths seem necessary, such as analytic truths, e.g. "All bachelors are unmarried." The particular example of analytic truth being necessary is not universally held among philosophers. A less controversial view might be that self-identity is necessary, as it seems fundamentally incoherent to claim that for any x, it is not identical to itself; this is known as the principle of contradiction. Aristotle describes the principle of contradiction, "It is impossible that the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing . . . This is the most certain of all principles . . . Wherefore they who demonstrate refer to this as an ultimate opinion. For it is by nature the source of all the other axioms."


Abstract objects and Materialism
Apart from Universals, some philosophers endorse views according to which there are abstract particulars. Mathematical objects and objects in fictions are often given as examples of abstract objects. The view that there really are no abstract objects is called materialism.

One of the most necessary abstract objects is a definition of terms. If "the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing," there must be conflicting definitions. This renders definition abstract, and further discusion is irrelevant until the contradiction between definitions is resolved.





Criticism
Metaphysics has been attacked, at different times in history, as being futile and overly vague. David Hume and Immanuel Kant both prescribed a limited role to the subject and argued against knowledge progressing beyond the world of our representations (except, in the case of Kant, to knowledge that the noumena exist).[citation needed] A.J. Ayer is famous for leading a "revolt against metaphysics," where he claimed that its propositions were meaningless.[citation needed] Martin Heidegger often criticised metaphysics, yet his early work dealt with questions that many would consider metaphysical.[citation needed] British universities became less concerned with the area for much of the 20th century; the later work of Wittgenstein discredited metaphysical questions as nonsense on purely linguistic grounds.[citation needed] However, metaphysics has seen a reemergence in recent times amongst philosophy departments.

A more nuanced view is that metaphysical statements are not meaningless statements, but rather that they are generally not fallible, testable or provable statements (see Karl Popper). That is to say, there is no valid set of empirical observations nor a valid set of logical arguments, which could definitively prove metaphysical statements to be true or false. Hence, a metaphysical statement usually implies a belief about the world or about the universe, which may seem reasonable but is ultimately not empirically verifiable. That belief could be changed in a non-arbitrary way, based on experience or argument, yet there exists no evidence or argument so compelling that it could rationally force a change in that belief, in the sense of definitely proving it false.

Answer 8

Metaphysics
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Jump to: navigation, search

Plato and Aristotle, by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). Aristotle is regarded as the "father" of metaphysics.Metaphysics (from Greek: μετά (meta) = "after", φύσις (phúsis) = "nature") is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the world. It is the study of being or reality.[1] It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's place in the universe?

A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what categories of things are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.

More recently, the term "metaphysics" has also been used to refer to "subjects which are beyond the physical world". A "metaphysical bookstore," for instance, is not one that sells books on ontology, but rather one that sells books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics.




Contents [hide]
1 History of metaphysics
2 Central questions of metaphysics
2.1 Particulars and universals
2.2 Change and identity
2.3 Space and time
2.4 Necessity and possibility
2.5 Abstract objects and Materialism
3 Criticism
4 Metaphysical subdisciplines
5 Metaphysical topics and problems
6 Metaphysicians
7 See also
8 References
9 External links



[edit]
History of metaphysics
The word "metaphysics" is generally held to have come from the title given to one of Aristotle's works by the editor of his works Andronicus of Rhodes: Metaphysics, or in Greek, τα μετα τα φυσικά (i.e. the books after the books on physics).

Aristotle himself referred to the subject as "first philosophy". Among Aristotle's other works was Physics. The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus, placed the books on first philosophy right after Physics. So those books were called τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά βιβλια, ta meta ta physika biblia, which means "the books that come after the (books about) physics." The name was first given to the work by Andronicus of Rhodes in c.70 B.C., referring to the customary organization of the Aristotlean corpus, but was misread by Latin scholiasts and became "the science of what is beyond the physical." The word comes to the English language by way of the Medieval Latin metaphysica, the neutral plural of Medieval Greek metaphysika.[2] Dictionary.com declares its English origins to be between 1560 and 1570,[3] while the Online Etymology Dictionary finds its origins to be as early as 1387.[2]

The Metaphysics was divided into three parts, now regarded as the traditional branches of Western metaphysics, called (1) ontology, (2) theology and (3) universal science. There were also some smaller, perhaps tangential matters: a philosophical lexicon, an attempt to define philosophy in general and several extracts from the Physics repeated verbatim.

Ontology is the study of existence: the definition of entities and classes of entities, such as physical or mental entities; the nature of the properties of entities; and the nature of change.
Theology is the study of God (or the gods) and of questions about the divine.
Universal science is the study of first principles, which Aristotle believed underlie all other inquiries. An example of such a principle is the law of non-contradiction: A = A, A ≠ B, Not both A and B.
Universal science or first philosophy treats of "being qua being" — that is, what is basic to all science before one adds the particular details of any one science. This includes topics like causality, substance, species and elements. It also includes topics like relationship, interaction, finitude and a theoretically boundless infinity.

Metaphysics as a discipline was a central part of academic inquiry and scholarly education even before the age of Aristotle. Long considered "the Queen of Sciences," its issues were considered no less important than the other main formal subjects of physical science, medicine, mathematics, poetics and music. Since the Age of Reason, problems that were not originally considered metaphysical have been added to metaphysics. Other problems that were considered metaphysical problems for centuries are now typically relegated to their own separate subheadings in philosophy, such as philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. In some cases subjects of metaphysical research have been found to be entirely physical and natural, thus making them part of physics.

[edit]
Central questions of metaphysics
Most positions that can be taken with regards to any of the following questions are endorsed by one or another notable philosopher. It is often difficult to frame the questions in a non-controversial manner.

[edit]
Particulars and universals
The world seems to contain many individual things, both physical, like apples, and abstract such as the British constitution, Greek democracy, and the number "3." Such objects are called particulars. Now, consider two apples. There seem to be many ways in which those two apples are similar, they may be approximately the same size, or shape, or color. They are both fruit, etc. One might also say that the two apples seem to have some thing or things in common. Universals or Properties are said to be those things.

Metaphysicians working on questions about universals or particulars are interested in the nature of objects and their properties, and the relationship between the two. For instance, one might hold that properties are abstract objects, existing outside of space and time, to which particular objects bear special relations. Others maintain that what particulars are is a bundle or collection of properties (specifically, a bundle of properties they have).

[edit]
Change and identity
Identity, sometimes called Numerical Identity, is the relation that everything bears to itself, and which nothing bears to anything other than itself. According to Leibniz, if some object x is identical to some object y, then any property that x has, y will have also. However, it seems to us that objects can change over time. If you were to look at a tree one day, and the tree later lost a leaf, it would seem that you could still go look at that same tree. Metaphysicians work to explain what it means for the same object to have different properties at different times, as well as the question of how objects persist through time. (See Also: identity and change)

[edit]
Space and time
This apple exists in space (it sits on a table in a room) and in time (it was not on the table a week ago and it will not be on the table a week from now). But what does this talk of space and time mean? Can we say, for example, that space is like an invisible three-dimensional grid in which the apple is located? Suppose the apple and every other physical object in the universe were to be entirely removed from existence: then would space, that "invisible grid," still exist? René Descartes believed not—he thought that without physical objects, space would not exist, because space is the framework in which we understand how physical objects are related to each other.[4] There are, however, many other metaphysical questions to ask about space and time.

[edit]
Necessity and possibility
Metaphysicians investigate questions about the ways the world could have been. David Lewis, in "On the Plurality of Worlds," endorsed a view called Concrete Modal Realism, according to which facts about how things could have been are made true by other concrete worlds, just like ours, in which things are different. Other philosophers, such as Gottfried Leibniz have dealt with the idea of possible worlds as well. The idea of necessity is that any necessary fact is true across all possible worlds; that is, we could not imagine it to be otherwise. A possible fact is one that is true in some possible world, even if not in the actual world. For example, it is possible that cats could have had two tails, or that any particular apple could have not existed. By contrast, certain truths seem necessary, such as analytic truths, e.g. "All bachelors are unmarried." The particular example of analytic truth being necessary is not universally held among philosophers. A less controversial view might be that self-identity is necessary, as it seems fundamentally incoherent to claim that for any x, it is not identical to itself; this is known as the principle of contradiction. Aristotle describes the principle of contradiction, "It is impossible that the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing . . . This is the most certain of all principles . . . Wherefore they who demonstrate refer to this as an ultimate opinion. For it is by nature the source of all the other axioms."

[edit]
Abstract objects and Materialism
Apart from Universals, some philosophers endorse views according to which there are abstract particulars. Mathematical objects and objects in fictions are often given as examples of abstract objects. The view that there really are no abstract objects is called materialism.

One of the most necessary abstract objects is a definition of terms. If "the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing," there must be conflicting definitions. This renders definition abstract, and further discusion is irrelevant until the contradiction between definitions is resolved.

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.
[edit]
Criticism
Metaphysics has been attacked, at different times in history, as being futile and overly vague. David Hume and Immanuel Kant both prescribed a limited role to the subject and argued against knowledge progressing beyond the world of our representations (except, in the case of Kant, to knowledge that the noumena exist).[citation needed]A.J. Ayer is famous for leading a "revolt against metaphysics," where he claimed that its propositions were meaningless.[citation needed] Martin Heidegger often criticised metaphysics, yet his early work dealt with questions that many would consider metaphysical.[citation needed] British universities became less concerned with the area for much of the 20th century; the later work of Wittgenstein discredited metaphysical questions as nonsense on purely linguistic grounds.[citation needed] However, metaphysics has seen a reemergence in recent times amongst philosophy departments.

A more nuanced view is that metaphysical statements are not meaningless statements, but rather that they are generally not fallible, testable or provable statements (see Karl Popper). That is to say, there is no valid set of empirical observations nor a valid set of logical arguments, which could definitively prove metaphysical statements to be true or false. Hence, a metaphysical statement usually implies a belief about the world or about the universe, which may seem reasonable but is ultimately not empirically verifiable. That belief could be changed in a non-arbitrary way, based on experience or argument, yet there exists no evidence or argument so compelling that it could rationally force a change in that belief, in the sense of definitely proving it false.

[edit]
Metaphysical subdisciplines
Natural philosophy
Ontology
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of perception
[edit]
Metaphysical topics and problems
Identity and change
Problem of free will
The nature of time
The nature of the mind
[edit]
Metaphysicians
Metaphysics writers
David Malet Armstrong
Aristotle
Avicenna (Ibn Sina)
Thomas Aquinas
Louis-Victor de Broglie
William Kingdon Clifford
Donald Davidson
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Gilles Deleuze
René Descartes
Mary Baker Eddy
Charles Fillmore
Neville Goddard
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Martin Heidegger
Werner Heisenberg
Ernest Holmes
Emma Curtis Hopkins
Aldous Huxley
Immanuel Kant
Saul Kripke
Gottfried Leibniz
David Lewis
George Edward Moore
Daniel David Palmer
B.J. Palmer
Charles Peirce
Robert M. Pirsig
Plato
Max Planck
Karl Popper
Willard Van Orman Quine
Carl Reichenbach
Nicholas Rescher
Richard Rorty
Bertrand Russell
Jean-Paul Sartre
Erwin Schrödinger
J. J. C. Smart
Paul Tillich
Conny Méndez
Mahmoud Khatami

[edit]
See also
Advaita
Dvaita
Aesthetics
Buddhist philosophy
Christian Science
Cosmology
Dualism
Eastern philosophy
Epistemology
Environmental metaphysics
Ethics
Ken Wilber
List of spirituality-related topics
Logical positivism
Metaphysics of Quality
Monism

Mysticism
New Thought Movement
Ontology
Philosophy
Pluralism
Pratitya-samutpada
Reason
Religious Science
Quantum metaphysics
Spiritism
Taoism
Theology
Theory of everything
Transcendence






[edit]
References
^ Geisler, Norman L. "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics" page 446. Baker Books, 1999
^ a b Douglas Harper. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1) - Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
^ The Principles of Philosophy, Part II: of Material Things, see X to XVI.
Butchvarov, Panayot (1979). "Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence and Predication." Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.
Gale, Richard M. (2002) "The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics." Oxford: Blackwell.
Lowe, E. J. (2002). A survey of metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Loux, M. J. (2002). Metaphysics: A contemporary introduction (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Kim, J. and Ernest Sosa Ed. (1999). Metaphysics:An Anthology. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies.
Kim, J. and Ernest Sosa, Ed. (2000). A Companion to Metaphysics. Malden Massachusetts, Blackwell, Publishers.
Fillmore, Charles (1931, 17th printing July 2000). Metaphysical Bible Dictionary. Unity Village, Missouri: Unity House. ISBN 0-871-59067-0
Hans Wehrli: Metaphysik - Chiralität als Grundprinzip der Physik, 2006, ISBN 3-033-00791-0
[edit]
External links
trans. by W. D. Ross
trans. by Hugh Tredennick (HTML at Perseus)
Aristotle's Metaphysics at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entry under OBJECT, by Henry Laycock
Ways of Seeing: A common sense exploration of modern metaphysics.