Is the term "metaphysics" really accurate? Aren't quantum physics really metaphysics?

Question

Shouldn't they be, fauxphysics?

I don't understand quantum physics, but I can assure you, they have nothing to with what we think of as "metaphysical."

I didn't mean to say quantum physics are faux physics, I mean to say that ghosts and demons are fauxphysics.

Answer 1

"Metaphysics" has more than one meaning, and neither of them have anything to do with quantum physics. Quantum physics is one part of the science of physics.

Academic metaphysics

The term metaphysics originally referred to the writings of Aristotle that came after his writings on physics, in the arrangement made by Andronicus of Rhodes about three centuries after Aristotle's death.

Traditionally, metaphysics refers to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible. It seeks a description so basic, so essentially simple, so all-inclusive that it applies to everything, whether divine or human or anything else. It attempts to tell what anything must be like in order to be at all.


Popular metaphysics

A commonly employed, secondary, popular, usage of metaphysics includes a wide range of controversial phenomena believed by many people to exist beyond the physical.

Popular metaphysics relates to two traditionally contrasted, if not completely separable, areas, (1) mysticism, referring to experiences of unity with the ultimate, commonly interpreted as the God who is love, and (2) occultism, referring to the extension of knowing (extrasensory perception, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, retrocognition, and mediumship) and doing (psychokinesis) beyond the usually recognized fields of human activity. The academic study of the occult (literally hidden) has been known as psychical research and, more recently, parapsychology. Both New Age and New Thought emphasize mysticism and its practical, pragmatic application in daily living, but New Thought discourages involvement in occultism.

Answer 2

I find secretsauce's answer well stated also. I agree with everything up to the last paragraph. Then the phrase "true and valid articles of personal faith" caught my eye. Also, the concept of what it really means to "respect" other ideas is one I have been wrestling with for a long time. Some people seem to take this idea of respect to the point where any criticism at all is labeled improper. That can lead us down a path where no idea can be shot down because it deserves the same amount of respect any other idea does. Science cannot operate that way. We have to explore the territory where ideas lead and dump the ideas that don't work. Supernatural ideas are pretty much in unexplorable territory. That's why science has little to say about them. Does that mean they are immune from criticism? I don't want them to be, but there seems to be little more to do than just assert that there seems to be no way to deal with them fruitfully. Hence, they get labeled "unscientific." Unscientific is not the same thing as wrong -- I'll grant that. Still, I'm bothered just like the asker is when unscientific ideas seem to flourish when my instinct tells me they are wrong. I wish I had something stronger than my instinct as a weapon. Sigh. I guess I am going to be wrestling with myself quite a while longer -- especially when my instincts don't like quantum mechanics either!

Answer 3

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. There is a wonderful awakening that is happening around us that is being known as Divine Science. Some may refer to it as a religion, but it isn't in the traditional sense. It is more of a spiritual movement. Divine science applies metaphysics as part of the New Thought Movement. Quantum Physics is something completely different. The only relativity that I find between the two is the same relativity that I find with everything in this world, we are all energy.

Answer 4

Quantum physics and metaphysics are two quite different things. Quantum physics correctly predicts all sorts of observable phenomena. Metaphysics is more the study of what we can know and how we can know it.

Answer 5

"Metaphysics" is a fine term, but frequently misunderstood and mis-applied.

For the quantum level, "Paradophysics"? because so much of it doesn't fit our instinctive way of thinking about the world.
Even the gigantic scales of cosmology do not jar in quite the same way.
"I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with those damn quantum jumps." Erwin Schrödinger (He of the cat in the box)
"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." Niels Bohr

Metaphysics also hurts the mind, but in a subtly different way.
"What is it, that it is?"

Answer 6

I think it was socrates or plato (I always get them confused) that coined the term
"meta" - above
Physchuka "the physical world"
And keep in mind, the world they had didnt have things like microscopes, let alone the stuff we use to learn about Quatum mecahnics.....metaphysics literally meant the stuff that couldnt be seen

So actually, the term is correctly used in the context that you portray.

Its the rest of the contexts I'm not sure of ;)

Answer 7

No. Quantum physics is not "metaphysics" per se and it most certainly isn't "faux-physics". It is completely legitimate.

Answer 8

Hmm, if Metaphysics is fauxphysics, then is Metanews = Foxnews?

Answer 9

i dont think quantum physics should be considered foauxphysics,... but maybe metaphysics.... but ... not. .. both theoretical.

Answer 10

Lol, meta means "beyond". Is that what you mean by quantum physics?