What is metaphysics?

philologos

I'm currently studying philosophy at university, and we are studying our second module of metaphysics and I'm still quite confused as to what exactly metaphysics is.

I've been reading a bit of Aristotle's Metaphysics for this course only to find that most scholars think that "Metaphysics" was a term added by one of Aristotle's editors. Indeed, the books order may not be the order in which Aristotle intended it, and as a result there are three separate definitions for what the practice of "metaphysics" (being qua being, or in Aristotle's own terms "first philosophy" (occasionally referred to as theology in a philosophical rather than a religious sense). The text itself is Aristotle's lecture notes on the subject and it is not all that clear as to what each section is intended for.

I find a number of things interesting about what I've learned about how "metaphysics" as a term came into popular use particularly when it comes into theological (in the sense of studying God's existence).

The Hebrews would have never even thought of devising a subject "metaphysics". Everything was one, and everything was in order. Yes, God could be perceived as sometimes transcendent or distant but at the same time the Hebrews made practising God's nature a part of their immanent experience. The 613 Mitzvot of Judaism governed their daily lives, God was present in everything that they managed to do, and everything was in some way a reminder towards their collective existence in Egypt. God and everyday existence on earth seemed to be synonymous.

It is also interesting to question whether or not the philosophers of the Medieval period (such as Aquinas and Duns Scotus or the Islamic schools of philosophy) disingenuously used Aristotle's text in order to pursue their own agenda. I mean this particularly in respect to metaphysics but it could be also argued in respect to their ethical theories or their respective philosophies of religion.

So in the midst of ambiguity can I ask you what you think metaphysics is?

Philosophy seems to be one of those subjects that continually brings you back to humility, an acceptance and readiness to explore more. As Nicolas of Cusa another metaphysician wrote "the more man knows, the more man accepts the ignorance that is distinctively his" (a paraphrase).

Joe1919

This link below helped get me through a module on metaphysics.
He discusses the meaning of the word 'metaphysics' in the intro.
http://www.phorrigan.fcpages.com/

Carnap thought that metaphysics is often 'bad art', in that it is 'art' because it is the product of the imagination and 'bad' when it fails to see this and tries to make claims to truth without empirical evidence.
Although I am a bit of a sceptic, I would not go that far and I got something from the study of metaphysics.( I focused on the principle of non-contradiction and transcendentals).

Histie

Metaphysics, put concisely, conerns the study of the ultimate nature of reality, by which is meant reality at its most fundamental level; for example, the concept of time is important in our daily lives, but some philosophers such as J.M.E. McTaggart have argued that in a fundamental sense time does not exist.

Many of the most controversial questions are metametaphysical, i.e., concerning metaphysics itself. For example, the Logical Positivists rejected the very idea of metaphysics as a legitimate discipline, contending that its questions were literally meaningless, as something cannot be meaningful unless it is verifiable empirically; unfortunately, this assertion is problematic as it cannot itself be verified empirically. The movement lost significant support many years ago, but its focus on linguistic questions remains influential in the analytic school of philosophy.

Grayson

philologos wrote: »

I've been reading a bit of Aristotle's Metaphysics for this course only to find that most scholars think that "Metaphysics" was a term added by one of Aristotle's editors. Indeed, the books order may not be the order in which Aristotle intended it, and as a result there are three separate definitions for what the practice of "metaphysics" (being qua being, or in Aristotle's own terms "first philosophy" (occasionally referred to as theology in a philosophical rather than a religious sense). The text itself is Aristotle's lecture notes on the subject and it is not all that clear as to what each section is intended for.

The first philosophy is a good example of what metaphysics is.

The best way I can think of describing it is that all other academic areas are the study of being something.

Physics was initially the study of being in motion (amoungst many other things now)
Biology is the study of being alive.
An MBA is a study of being a manager.

metaphysics is the study of what it means to be anything. In otherwords the study of existance. Because of this it's refered to as the first philosophy. Before studying what it is to be something, it is a study of what it means to be.
Because of this, there's a huge amount of overlap later on.

Unlimited Bacon

Aristotle called it metaphysics because in his book he placed it after physics section. It was literally after physics.

Trufax.