Question by Super_Aidan: What is Metaphysics and Can i have a clear answer?
Ok Im like 15 and kind of interested in metaphysics and stuff like that. if someone could expain what metaphysics is so that i could understand and/or provide me with info as to where i could go to learn more about this without my brain exploding from information overload and way-way-way-way-way too big words i would appreciate it greatly. thank you
Best answer:
Answer by Chuck W
It’s like physics, only more meta.
What do you think? Answer below!
To speculate at the cause of all knowledge and existence.
Simply put, metaphysics is the understanding of the essences of things. For example, the essence of “man” is “rational animal,” because metaphysics is about the subject of “Being,” all the way back to the essence of the “being,” or the thing. An “essence” is a “concept”, a definition. The very basic definition is as far as you can go.
Again, using “man,” you could say he is a bi-pedal with opposible thumbs.” That says nothing about man’s “rationality,” and his “opposible thumbs” are a lesser definition than “rationality.” Man could be 4 footed with cloven hooves, but if he was “rational,” that would be the subsuming characteristic.
“A definition must identify the nature of the units, i.e., the essential characteristics without which the units would not be the kind of existents they are.” Ayn Rand
Calling man the “rational animal” is as far as you can go, because that definition “subsumes” (includes) all the lesser definitions.
“The branch of philosophy that studies existence is metaphysics. Metaphysics identifies the nature of the universe as a whole. It tells men what kind of world they live in, and whether there is a supernatural dimension beyond it. It tells men whether they live in a world of solid entities, natural laws, absolute facts, or in a world of illusory fragments, unpredictable miracles, and ceaseless flux. It tells men whether the things they perceive by their senses and mind form a comprehensible reality, with which they can deal, or some kind of unreal appearance, which leaves them staring and helpless.”
Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, 23.
Literally the term translates to “beyond physics”
It involves the study or contemplation of those things in the universe which cannot be explained simply by the understanding of physical science. Philosophy is metaphysical, religious belief is metaphysical.
When a 15 year old wonders: “why am I here?”, or thinks about the meaning of life, he is being metaphysical.
Not too many polysyllabics, I trust?
The word derives from the Greek words metá (meaning “after”) and physiká (meaning “physical”).
It is a part of philosophy that tries to explain what cannot be readily explained by science because it has no ‘physical’ reality.
It rests in the mind of man and attempts to clarify the ideas by which people understand the world.
Since everyones ideas are different, philosophy debates the validity of the ideas science is unable to prove. Science relys on what is quantifiable and based on physical facts.
Therefore after what is physically proveable comes metaphysics.
Try this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics
The study of all that which it is not possible to observe through sense data i.e by seeing, smelling, tasting, etc. and it also involves the study of that which is impossible to scientifically verify. Where physics runs out metaphysics begins. Some believe that it is cognitively meaningless to study metaphysics since no empirical data can be gathered to validate any hypothesis about anything metaphysical.