Progress. Meditation. Metaphysics. Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it,[1] although the term is not easily defined.[2] Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:[3] Ultimately, what is there?
What is it like? Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. Originally, the term "science" (Latin scientia) simply meant "knowledge". The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy.
By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from philosophy. Etymology[edit] However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic reasons for its appropriateness. Central questions[edit] Cosmology and cosmogony[edit] Determinism and free will[edit] [edit] Metaphysics.
If the aim of physical theories is to explain experimental laws, theoretical physics is not an autonomous science; it is subordinate to metaphysics. ~ Pierre Duhem Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world of experience, and thus is never easily or precisely defined in contingent terms; it is the study of 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. Scientific questions were once addressed as a portion of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. The term science itself meant "knowledge" originating from epistemology.
Focus upon the use of the scientific method, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity with emphasis on physical experimentation unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from philosophy. Metaphysics | Rising Life Media. Metaphysics (Sciences) Métaphysique.
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, by Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804. Personal Development and Metaphysics. The Great Matrix of Being. Our European ancestors once understood the universe to be a Great Chain of Being. All the entities of the world -- animal, vegetable, mineral -- were hierarchically organized. At the bottom were metals, precious metals, and precious stones. Then came plants and trees, followed by wild animals and domesticated animals. Humans were also hierarchically ordered from children to women to men and further into the different ranks of commoners, nobility, princes, and kings. The Great Chain of Being continued up into the celestial realm -- moon, stars, angels, and archangels -- to the very top where God presides over the entire creation. Retorica Christiana, written by Didacus Valdes in 1579, Source: Wiki Media Science, or so the story goes, disrupted this view of the universe and ourselves.
The Great Chain of Being was rendered a tangled web of happenstance in an enormous universe devoid of transcendence and meaning. This turns out to be quite a distortion of the actual science and history. 1.
Spiritual, Metaphysics, Personal Development. Metaphysics. Metaphysics. Plato and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). Aristotle is regarded as the "father" of metaphysics. Metaphysics (Greek: (meta)="after," (phisiká)="those on nature," derived from the arrangement of Aristotle's works) is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the most fundamental aspects of the world. It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Does the world exist outside the mind? A central part of metaphysics is ontology, which is the study of being. It is important to distinguish the sense of "metaphysics" employed by philosophers from its recent association with spirituality and world-transcending thought, though the latter does stem from developments in the former. Five central questions of metaphysics Mind and matter One of the central issues in metaphysics concerns how to understand the relation between minds and the world in which they exist.
Objects and their properties Identity and change Peter Abelard Aristotle.