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Metaphysics

April 18, 2024

For other uses, see Metaphysics (disambiguation).

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of reality but some modern theorists understand it as an inquiry into the conceptual schemes that underlie human thought and experience.

The beginning of Aristotle's Metaphysics, one of the foundational texts of the discipline

Many general and abstract topics belong to the purview of metaphysics. It investigates what existence is, which features all entities have in common, and how they are divided into categories of being. An influential contrast is between particulars, which are individual unique entities, like a specific apple, and universals, which are general repeatable entities that characterize particulars, like the color red. Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary. The nature of space and time is another broad topic, with metaphysicians discussing how to conceive them and how to conceptualize change. A closely related issue concerns the essence of causality and its relation to the laws of nature. Other topics include how mind and matter are related, whether everything in the world is predetermined, and whether there is free will.

Metaphysicians employ various methods to conduct their inquiry. Traditionally, they rely on rational intuitions and abstract reasoning but have more recently also included empirical approaches associated with scientific theories. Due to the abstract nature of its topic, metaphysics has received criticisms questioning the reliability of its methods and the meaningfulness of its theories. Metaphysics is relevant to many fields of inquiry that often implicitly rely on metaphysical concepts and assumptions.

The origin of metaphysics lies in the ancient period with speculations about the nature of reality and the universe, like the ones found in the Upanishads in ancient India, Daoism in ancient China, and pre-Socratic philosophy in ancient Greece. Aristotle conceived the scope of metaphysics under the title first philosophy and was influential in shaping the discussion of the nature of universals in the subsequent medieval period. The modern period saw the emergence of many rationalist and idealist systems of metaphysics. In the 20th century, various criticisms of earlier theories were voiced and new approaches to metaphysical inquiry were proposed.

Definition edit

Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality, including existence, objects and their properties, possibility and necessity, space and time, change, causation, and the relation between matter and mind. It is one of the oldest branches of philosophy.[1]

The precise nature of metaphysics is disputed and its characterization has changed in the course of history. Some approaches see metaphysics as a unified field and give a wide-sweeping definition by understanding it as the study of "fundamental questions about the nature of reality" or as an inquiry into the essences of things. Another approach doubts that the different areas of metaphysics share a set of underlying features and provides instead a fine-grained characterization by listing all the main topics investigated by metaphysicians.[2] Some definitions are descriptive by providing an account of what metaphysicians actually do while others are normative and prescribe what metaphysicians ought to do.[3]

Two historically influential definitions in ancient and medieval philosophy understand metaphysics as the science of the first causes and as the study of being qua being, that is, the topic of what all beings have in common and to what fundamental categories they belong. In the modern period, the scope of metaphysics was extended to cover topics such as the distinction between mind and body and free will.[4] Some philosophers follow Aristotle in describing metaphysics as first philosophy, implying that it is the most basic inquiry while all other branches of philosophy depend on it in some way.[5][a]

 
Immanuel Kant conceived critical metaphysics as the study of the principles underlying all human thought and experience.

Metaphysics is traditionally understood as a study of mind-independent features of reality. Starting with Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy, an alternative conception gained prominence that focuses on conceptual schemes rather than external reality. Kant distinguishes transcendent metaphysics, which aims to describe the objective features of reality beyond sense experience, from critical metaphysics, which outlines the aspects and principles underlying all human thought and experience.[7]

Metaphysics differs from the individual sciences by studying very general and abstract aspects of reality. The individual sciences, by contrast, examine more specific and concrete features and restrict themselves to certain classes of entities, such as the focus on physical things in physics, living entities in biology, and cultures in anthropology.[8] It is disputed to what extent this contrast is a strict dichotomy rather than a gradual continuum.[9]

Philosophers engaged in metaphysics are called metaphysicians or metaphysicists.[10] Outside the academic discourse, the term metaphysics is sometimes used in a different sense for the study of occult and paranormal phenomena, like metaphysical healing, auras, and the power of pyramids.[11]

The word metaphysics has its origin in the ancient Greek words metá (μετά, meaning after, above, and beyond) and phusiká (φυσικά) as a short form of ta metá ta phusiká, that is, what comes after the physics. This is frequently interpreted in the sense that metaphysics discusses topics that, due to their generality and comprehensiveness, lie beyond the realm of physics and its focus on empirical observation. It is often suggested that metaphysics got its name by a historical accident when Aristotle's book on this subject was published. Aristotle did not use the term metaphysics but his editor may have coined it for its title to indicate that this book came after the book published on physics. The term entered the English language through the Latin word metaphysica.[12]

Branches edit

The nature of metaphysics can also be characterized in relation to its main branches. An influential division from early modern philosophy distinguishes between general and special or specific metaphysics.[13] General metaphysics, also called ontology,[b] takes the widest perspective and studies the most fundamental aspects of being. It investigates the features that all entities have in common and how entities can be divided into different categories. Categories are the most general kinds, such as substance, property, relation, and fact.[15] Ontologists research which categories there are, how they depend on one another, and how they form a system of categories that provides an encompassing classification of all entities.[16]

Special metaphysics considers being from more narrow perspectives and is divided into subdisciplines based on the perspective they take. Metaphysical cosmology examines changeable things and investigates how they are connected to form a world as a totality of entities extending through space and time.[17] Rational psychology restricts itself to exploring metaphysical foundations and problems concerning the mind, such as its relation to matter and the freedom of the will. Natural theology studies the divine and its role as the first cause.[17] The scope of special metaphysics overlaps with other philosophical disciplines and it is often not clear whether a topic belongs to it rather than to disciplines like philosophy of mind and theology.[18]

Applied metaphysics is a young subdiscipline. It belongs to applied philosophy and studies the applications of metaphysics, both within philosophy and other fields of inquiry. In ethics and philosophy of religion, it concerns topics like the ontological foundation of moral claims and religious doctrines.[19] Applications outside philosophy include the use of ontologies in artificial intelligence, economics, and sociology to classify entities[20] as well as questions in psychiatry and medicine about the metaphysical status of diseases.[21]

Meta-metaphysics[c] is the metatheory of metaphysics and investigates the nature and methods of metaphysics. It also examines how metaphysics differs from other philosophical and scientific disciplines and how it is relevant to them. While the discussions of its topics have a long history in metaphysics, it has only recently developed into a systematic field of inquiry.[23]

Topics edit

Existence and categories of being edit

Main articles: Existence and Theory of categories

Metaphysicians often see existence or being as one of the most basic and general concepts.[24] To exist means to form part of reality and existence marks the difference between real entities and imaginary ones.[25] According to the orthodox view, existence is a second-order property or a property of properties: if an entity exists then its properties are instantiated.[26] A different position states that existence is a first-order property, meaning that it is similar to other properties of entities, such as shape or size.[27] It is controversial whether all entities have this property. According to Alexius Meinong, there are some objects that do not exist, including merely possible objects like Santa Claus and Pegasus.[28][d] A related question is whether existence is the same for all entities or whether there are different modes or degrees of existence.[29] For instance, Plato held that Platonic forms, which are perfect and immutable ideas, have a higher degree of existence than matter, which is only able to imperfectly mirror Platonic forms.[30]

Another key concern in metaphysics is the division of entities into different groups based on underlying features they have in common. Theories of categories provide a system of the most fundamental kinds or the highest genera of being by establishing a comprehensive inventory of everything.[31] One of the earliest theories of categories was provided by Aristotle, who proposed a system of 10 categories. Substances (e.g. man and horse), are the most important category since all other categories like quantity (e.g. four), quality (e.g. white), and place (e.g. in Athens) are said of substances and depend on them.[32] Kant understood categories as fundamental principles underlying human understanding and developed a system of 12 categories, which are divided into the four classes quantity, quality, relation, and modality.[33] More recent theories of categories were proposed by Edmund Husserl, Samuel Alexander, Roderick Chisholm, and E. J. Lowe.[34] Many philosophers rely on the contrast between concrete and abstract objects. According to a common view, concrete objects, like rocks, trees, and human beings, exist in space and time, undergo changes, and impact each other as cause and effect, while abstract objects, like numbers and sets, exist outside space and time, are immutable, and do not enter into causal relations.[35]

Particulars edit

Particulars are individual entities and include both concrete objects, like Aristotle, the Eiffel Tower, or a specific apple, and abstract objects, like the number 2 or a specific set in mathematics. Also called individuals,[e] they are unique, non-repeatable entities and contrast with universals, like the color red, which can at the same time exist in several places and characterize several particulars.[37] A widely held view is that particulars instantiate universals but are not themselves instantiated by something else, meaning that they exist in themselves while universals exist in something else. Substratum theory analyzes particulars as a substratum, also called bare particular, together with various properties. The substratum confers individuality to the particular while the properties express its qualitative features or what it is like. This approach is rejected by bundle theorists, who state that particulars are only bundles of properties without an underlying substratum. Some bundle theorists include in the bundle an individual essence, called haecceity, to ensure that each bundle is unique. Another proposal for concrete particulars is that they are individuated by their space-time location.[38]

Concrete particulars encountered in everyday life, like rocks, tables, and organisms, are complex entities composed of various parts. For example, a table is made up of a tabletop and legs, each of which is itself made up of countless particles. The relation between parts and wholes is studied by mereology.[39] The problem of the many is about which groups of entities form mereological wholes, for instance, whether a dust particle on the tabletop forms part of the table. According to mereological universalists, every collection of entities forms a whole, meaning that the parts of the table without the dust particle form one whole while they together with it form a second whole. Mereological moderatists hold that certain conditions have to be fulfilled for a group of entities to compose a whole, for example, that the entities touch one another. Mereological nihilists reject the idea that there are any wholes. They deny that, strictly speaking, there is a table and talk instead of particles that are arranged table-wise.[40] A related mereological problem is whether there are simple entities that have no parts, as atomists claim, or not, as continuum theorists contend.[41]

Universals edit

Main article: Universal (metaphysics)

Universals are general entities, encompassing both properties and relations, that express what particulars are like and how they resemble one another. They are repeatable, meaning that they are not limited to a unique existent but can be instantiated by different particulars at the same time. For example, the particulars Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi instantiate the universal humanity, similar to how a strawberry and a ruby instantiate the universal red.[42]

A topic discussed since ancient philosophy, the problem of universals consists in the challenge of characterizing the ontological status of universals.[43] Realists argue that universals are real, mind-independent entities that exist in addition to particulars. According to Platonic realists, universals exist also independently of particulars, which implies that the universal red would continue to exist even if there were no red things. A more moderate form of realism, inspired by Aristotle, states that universals depend on particulars, meaning that they are only real if they are instantiated. Nominalists reject the idea that universals exist in either form. For them, the world is composed exclusively of particulars. The position of conceptualists constitutes a middle ground: they state that universals exist, but only as concepts in the mind used to order experience by classifying entities.[44]

Natural and social kinds are often understood as special types of universals. Entities belonging to the same natural kind share certain fundamental features characteristic of the structure of the natural world. In this regard, natural kinds are not an artificially made-up classification but are discovered,[f] usually by the natural sciences, and include kinds like electrons, H2O, and tigers. Scientific realists and anti-realists are in disagreement about whether natural kinds exist.[46] Social kinds are basic concepts used in the social sciences, such as race, gender, money, and disability.[47] They are studied by social metaphysics and group entities based on similarities they share from the perspective of certain practices, conventions, and institutions. They are often characterized as useful social constructions that, while not purely fictional, fail to reflect the fundamental structure of mind-independent reality.[48]

Possibility and necessity edit

The concepts of possibility and necessity convey what can or must be the case, expressed in statements like "it is possible to find a cure for cancer" and "it is necessary that two plus two equals four". They belong to modal metaphysics, which investigates the metaphysical principles underlying them, in particular, why it is the case that some modal statements are true while others are false.[49][g] Some metaphysicians hold that modality is a fundamental aspect of reality, meaning that besides facts about what is the case, there are additional facts about what could or must be the case.[51] A different view argues that modal truths are not about an independent aspect of reality but can be reduced to non-modal characteristics, for example, to facts about what properties or linguistic descriptions are compatible with each other or to fictional statements.[52]

Following Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, many metaphysicians use the concept of possible worlds to analyze the meaning and ontological ramifications of modal statements. A possible world is a complete and consistent way of how things could have been.[53] For example, the dinosaurs were wiped out in the actual world but there are possible worlds in which they are still alive.[54] According to possible world semantics, a statement is possibly true if it is true in at least one possible world while it is necessarily true if it is true in all possible worlds.[55] Modal realists argue that possible worlds exist as concrete entities in the same sense as the actual world, with the main difference being that the actual world is the world we live in while other possible worlds are inhabited by counterparts. This view is controversial and various alternatives have been suggested, for example, that possible worlds only exist as abstract objects or that they are similar to stories told in works of fiction.[56]

Space, time, and change edit

Main article: Philosophy of space and time

Space and time are dimensions that entities occupy. Spacetime realists state that space and time are fundamental aspects of reality and exist independently of the human mind. This view is rejected by spacetime idealists, who hold that space and time are constructions of the human mind in its attempt to organize and make sense of reality.[57] Spacetime absolutism or substantivalism understands spacetime as a distinct object, with some metaphysicians conceptualizing it as a box that contains all other entities within it. Spacetime relationism, by contrast, sees spacetime not as an object but as relations between objects, such as the spatial relation of being next to and the temporal relation of coming before.[58]

In the metaphysics of time, an important contrast is between the A-series and the B-series. According to the A-series theory, the flow of time is real, meaning that events are categorized into the past, present, and future. The present keeps moving forward in time and events that are in the present now will change their status and lie in the past later. From the perspective of the B-series theory, time is static and events are ordered by the temporal relations earlier-than and later-than without any essential difference between past, present, and future.[59] Eternalism holds that past, present, and future are equally real while according to presentists, only entities in the present exist.[60]

Material objects persist through time and undergo changes in the process, like a tree that grows or loses leaves.[61] The main ways of conceptualizing persistence through time are endurantism and perdurantism. According to endurantism, material objects are three-dimensional entities that are wholly present at each moment. As they undergo changes, they gain or lose properties but remain the same otherwise. Perdurantists see material objects as four-dimensional entities that extend through time and are made up of different temporal parts. At each moment, only one part of the object is present but not the object as a whole. Change means that an earlier part is qualitatively different from a later part. For example, if a banana ripens then there is an unripe part followed by a ripe part.[62]

Causality edit

Main article: Causality

Causality is the relation between cause and effect whereby one entity produces or affects another entity.[63] For instance, if a person bumps a glass and spills its contents then the bump is the cause and the spill is the effect.[64] Besides the single-case causation between particulars in this example, there is also general-case causation expressed in general statements such as "smoking causes cancer".[65] The term agent causation is used if people and their actions cause something.[66] Causation is usually interpreted deterministically, meaning that a cause always brings about its effect. This view is rejected by probabilistic theories, which claim that the cause merely increases the probability that the effect occurs. This view can be used to explain that smoking causes cancer even though this is not true in every single case.[67]

The regularity theory of causation, inspired by David Hume's philosophy, states that causation is nothing but a constant conjunction in which the mind apprehends that one phenomenon, like putting one's hand in a fire, is always followed by another phenomenon, like a feeling of pain.[68] According to nomic regularity theories, the regularities take the forms of laws of nature studied by science.[69] Counterfactual theories focus not on regularities but on how effects depend on their causes. They state that effects owe their existence to the cause and would not be present without them.[70] According to primitivism, causation is a basic concept that cannot be analyzed in terms of non-causal concepts, such as regularities or dependence relations. One form of primitivism identifies causal powers inherent in entities as the underlying mechanism.[71] Eliminativists reject the above theories by holding that there is no causation.[72]

Mind and free will edit

Main articles: Mind and Free will
 
Different approaches toward resolving the mind–body problem

Mind encompasses phenomena like thinking, perceiving, feeling, and desiring as well as the underlying faculties responsible for these phenomena.[73] The mind–body problem is the challenge of clarifying the relation between physical and mental phenomena. According to Cartesian dualism, minds and bodies are distinct substances. They causally interact with each other in various ways but can, at least in principle, exist on their own.[74] This view is rejected by monists, who argue that reality is made up of only one kind. According to idealism, everything is mental, including physical objects, which may be understood as ideas or perceptions of conscious minds. Materialists, by contrast, state that all reality is at its core material. Some deny that mind exists but the more common approach is to explain mind in terms of certain aspects of matter, such as brain states, behavioral dispositions, or functional roles.[75] Neutral monists argue that reality is fundamentally neither material nor mental and suggest that matter and mind are both derivative phenomena.[76] A key aspect of the mind–body problem is the hard problem of consciousness, which concerns the question of how physical systems like brains can produce phenomenal consciousness.[77]

The status of free will as the ability of a person to choose their actions is a central aspect of the mind–body problem.[78] Metaphysicians are interested in the relation between free will and causal determinism, the view that everything in the universe, including human behavior, is determined by preceding events and laws of nature. It is controversial whether causal determinism is true, and, if so, whether this would imply that there is no free will. According to incompatibilism, free will cannot exist in a deterministic world since there is no true choice or control if everything is determined. Hard determinists infer from this observation that there is no free will while libertarians conclude that determinism must be false. Compatibilists take a third approach by arguing that determinism and free will do not exclude each other, for instance, because a person can still act in tune with their motivation and choices even if they are determined by other forces. Free will plays a key role in ethics in regard to the moral responsibility people have for what they do.[79]

Others edit

Identity is a relation that every entity has to itself as a form of sameness. It refers to numerical identity when the very same entity is involved, as in the statement "the morning star is the evening star". In a slightly different sense, it encompasses qualitative identity, also called exact similarity and indiscernibility, which is the case when two distinct entities are exactly alike, such as perfect identical twins.[80] The principle of the indiscernibility of identicals is widely accepted and holds that numerically identical entities exactly resemble one another. The converse principle, known as identity of indiscernibles, is more controversial and states that two entities are numerically identical if they exactly resemble one another.[81] Another distinction is between synchronic and diachronic identity. Synchronic identity relates an entity to itself at the same time while diachronic identity is about the same entity at different times, as in statements like "the table I bought last year is the same as the table in my dining room now".[82] Personal identity is a related topic in metaphysics that uses the term identity in a slightly different sense and concerns questions like what personhood is or what makes someone a person.[83]

Various contemporary metaphysicians rely on the concepts of truth and truthmakers to conduct their inquiry.[84] Truth is a property of linguistic statements or mental representations that are in accord with reality. A truthmaker of a statement is the entity whose existence makes the statement true.[85] For example, the statement "a tomato is red" is true because there exists a red tomato as its truthmaker.[86] Based on this observation, it is possible to pursue metaphysical research by asking what the truthmakers of statements are, with different areas of metaphysics being dedicated to different types of statements. According to this view, modal metaphysics asks what makes statements about what is possible and necessary true while the metaphysics of time is interested in the truthmakers of temporal statements about the past, present, and future.[87]

Methodology edit

Metaphysicians employ a variety of methods to arrive at metaphysical theories and formulate arguments for and against them.[88] Traditionally, a priori methods are the dominant approach. They rely on rational intuition and abstract reasoning from general principles rather than sensory experience. A posteriori approaches, by contrast, ground metaphysical theories in empirical observations and scientific theories.[89] Some metaphysicians use perspectives from fields such as physics, psychology, linguistics, and history to conduct their inquiry.[90] The two approaches are not exclusive and it is possible to combine elements from both.[91] Which method a metaphysician employs often depends on their conception of the nature of metaphysics, for example, whether they see it as an inquiry into the mind-independent structure of reality, as metaphysical realists claim, or the principles underlying thought and experience, as some metaphysical anti-realists contend.[92]

A priori approaches often rely on intuitions, that is, non-inferential impressions about the correctness of specific claims or general principles.[93] For example, arguments for the A-theory of time, which states that time flows from the past through the present and into the future, often rely on pre-theoretical intuitions associated with the sense of the passage of time.[94] Some approaches use intuitions to establish a small set of self-evident fundamental principles, known as axioms, and employ deductive reasoning to build complex metaphysical systems by drawing conclusions from these axioms.[95] Intuition-based approaches can be combined with thought experiments, which help evoke and clarify intuitions by linking them to imagined situations while using counterfactual thinking to assess the possible consequences of these situations.[96] To explore the relation between matter and consciousness, some theorists compare humans to philosophical zombies, that is, hypothetical creatures identical to humans but without conscious experience.[97] A related method relies on commonly accepted beliefs instead of intuitions to formulate arguments and theories. The common-sense approach is often used to criticize metaphysical theories that deviate a lot from how the average person thinks about an issue. For example, common-sense philosophers have argued that mereological nihilism is false since it implies that commonly accepted things, like tables, do not exist.[98]

Conceptual analysis, a method particularly prominent in analytic philosophy, aims to decompose metaphysical concepts into component parts in order to clarify their meaning and identify essential relations.[99] In phenomenology, the method of eidetic variation is used to investigate essential structures underlying phenomena. To study the essential features of any kind of object, it proceeds by imagining this object and varying its features to identify which ones are essential and cannot be changed.[100] The transcendental method is a further approach and examines the metaphysical structure of reality by observing what entities there are and studying the conditions of possibility without which these entities could not exist.[101]

Some approaches give less importance to a priori reasoning and see metaphysics instead as a practice continuous with the empirical sciences that generalizes their insights while making their underlying assumptions explicit. This approach is known as naturalized metaphysics and is closely associated with the work of Willard Van Orman Quine.[102] He relies on the idea that true sentences from the sciences and other fields have ontological commitments, that is, they imply that certain entities exist.[103] For example, if the sentence "some electrons are bonded to protons" is true then it can be used to justify that electrons and protons exist.[104] Quine used this insight to argue that one can learn about metaphysics by closely analyzing[h] scientific claims to understand what kind of metaphysical picture of the world they presuppose.[106]

In addition to methods of conducting metaphysical inquiry, there are various methodological principles used to decide between competing theories by comparing their theoretical virtues. Ockham's Razor is a well-known principle that gives preference to simple theories, in particular, to theories that assume that few entities exist. Other principles consider explanatory power, theoretical usefulness, and proximity to established beliefs.[107]

Criticism edit

 
David Hume criticized metaphysicians for trying to arrive at knowledge outside the field of sensory experience.

Despite its status as one of the main branches of philosophy, metaphysics has received numerous criticisms putting into question its status as a legitimate field of inquiry.[108] One type of criticism states that metaphysical inquiry is impossible because humans do not have the cognitive capacities needed to access the ultimate nature of reality.[109] This line of thought leads to a form of skepticism about the possibility of metaphysical knowledge. It is often followed by empiricists like Hume, who argue that there is no good source of metaphysical knowledge since metaphysics lies outside the field of empirical knowledge and relies on dubious intuitions about the realm beyond sensory experience. A closely related concern about the unreliability of metaphysical theorizing is that there a deep and lasting disagreements about metaphysical issues, indicating a lack of overall progress.[110]

Another criticism holds that the problem lies not with human cognitive abilities but with metaphysical statements themselves, which are claimed to be neither true nor false but meaningless. According to logical positivists, for instance, the meaning of a statement is given by the procedure used to verify it, usually in terms of the observations that would confirm it. Based on this controversial assumption, they argue that metaphysical statements are meaningless since they do not make predictions about experience.[111]

A slightly weaker position allows that metaphysical statements have meaning while holding that metaphysical disagreements are merely verbal disputes about different ways to describe the world. According to this view, the disagreement in the metaphysics of composition about whether there are tables or only particles arranged table-wise is a trivial debate about linguistic preferences without any substantive consequences for the nature of reality.[112] The position that metaphysical disputes have no meaning or no significant point is called metaphysical or ontological deflationism.[113] This view is opposed by serious metaphysicians, who contend that metaphysical disputes are about substantial features of the underlying structure of reality.[114] A closely related debate between ontological realists and anti-realists concerns the question of whether there are any objective facts that determine which metaphysical theories are true.[115] A different criticism, formulated by pragmatists, sees the fault of metaphysics not in its cognitive ambitions or the meaninglessness of its statements, but in its practical irrelevance and lack of usefulness.[116]

It is questionable to what extent the criticisms of metaphysics affect the discipline as a whole or only certain issues or approaches in it. For example, it could be the case that certain metaphysical disputes are merely verbal while others are substantive.[117]

Relation to other disciplines edit

Metaphysics is related to many fields of inquiry by investigating their basic concepts and relation to the fundamental structure of reality. For example, scientists often rely on concepts such as law of nature, causation, necessity, and spacetime to formulate their theories and predict or explain the outcomes of experiments.[118] While the main focus of scientists is on the application of these concepts to specific situations, metaphysics examines their general nature and how they depend on each other. Physicists formulate specific laws of nature, like laws of gravitation and thermodynamics, to describe how physical systems behave under various conditions. Metaphysicians, by contrast, ask what all laws of nature have in common, for example, whether they merely describe contingent regularities or express necessary relations.[119] At the same time, new scientific findings have also influenced existing and inspired new metaphysical theories. Einstein's theory of relativity, for instance, prompted various metaphysicians to conceive space and time as a unified dimension rather than as independent dimensions.[120] Empirically focused metaphysicians often rely on scientific theories to ground their theories about the nature of reality in empirical observations.[121]

Similar issues pertain to the social sciences where metaphysicians investigate their basic concepts and analyze their metaphysical implications. This includes questions like whether social facts arise from non-social facts, whether social groups and institutions have mind-independent existence, and how they persist through time.[122] Metaphysical assumptions and topics in psychology and psychiatry include the questions about the relation between body and mind, whether the nature of the human mind is historically fixed, and what the metaphysical status of diseases is.[123]

Metaphysics is similar to both physical cosmology and theology in its interest in the first causes and the universe as a whole. Key differences are that metaphysics relies on rational inquiry while physical cosmology gives more weight to empirical observations and theology is additionally based on divine revelation and faith-based doctrines.[124] Historically, cosmology and theology were considered subfields of metaphysics.[125]

Suggested Upper Merged Ontology
Entity    
  Physical    
  Object

 

  Process

 

  Abstract    
  Quantity

 

  Proposition

 

  Attribute

 

  Relation

 

  Set or Class

 

Fundamental categories in the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology[126]

Metaphysics in the form of ontology plays a central role in computer science to classify objects and formally represent information about them. Unlike metaphysicians, computer scientists are usually not interested in providing a single all-encompassing characterization of reality as a whole but instead employ many different ontologies, each one concerned only with a limited domain of entities.[127] For example, a college database may use an ontology with categories such as person, teacher, student, and exam to represent information about academic activities.[128] Ontologies provide standards or conceptualizations for encoding and storing information in a structured way, which makes it possible to use and transform the information by computational processes for a variety of purposes.[129] Some knowledge bases integrate information belonging to various domains, which brings with it the problem of handling data that was formulated using different ontologies. They do so by providing an upper ontology that defines concepts on a higher level of abstraction to apply to all domains. Influential upper ontologies include Suggested Upper Merged Ontology and Basic Formal Ontology.[130]

Logic as the study of correct reasoning[131] is often used by metaphysicians as a tool to engage in their inquiry and express insights using precise logical formulas.[132] Another relation between the two fields concerns the metaphysical assumptions associated with logical systems. Many logical systems like first-order logic rely on existential quantifiers to express existential statements. For instance, in the logical formula   the existential quantifier   is applied to the predicate   to express that there are horses. Following Quine, various metaphysicians assume that existential quantifiers carry ontological commitments, meaning that existential statements imply that the entities over which one quantifies form part of reality.[133]

History edit

Main article: History of metaphysics
 
The taijitu symbol shows yin and yang, which are concepts of two correlated forces used in Chinese metaphysics to explore the nature and patterns of existence.[134]

The history of metaphysics examines how the inquiry into the basic structure of reality has evolved in the course of history. Metaphysics has its origin in speculations about the nature and origin of the cosmos that go back to ancient civilizations.[135] In ancient India starting in the 7th century BCE, the Upanishads were written as religious and philosophical texts that examine how ultimate reality constitutes the ground of all being. They further explore the nature of the self and how it can reach liberation by understanding ultimate reality.[136] This period also saw the emergence of Buddhism in the 6th century BCE,[i] which denies the existence of an independent self and understands the world as a cyclic process.[138] At about the same time[j] in ancient China, the school of Daoism was formed and explored the natural order of the universe, known as Dao, and how it is characterized by the interplay of yin and yang as two correlated forces.[140]

In ancient Greece, metaphysics emerged in the 6th century BCE with the pre-Socratic philosophers, who gave rational explanations of the whole cosmos by examining the first principles from which everything arises.[141] Following them, Plato (427–347 BCE) formulated his theory of forms, which states that eternal forms or ideas possess the highest kind of reality while the material world is only an imperfect reflection of them.[142] Aristotle (384–322 BCE) accepted Plato's idea that there are universal forms but held that they cannot exist on their own but depend on matter. He also proposed a system of categories and developed a comprehensive framework of the natural world through his theory of the four causes.[143] Starting in the 4th century BCE, Hellenistic philosophy explored the rational order underlying the cosmos and the idea that it is made up of indivisible atoms.[144] Neoplatonism emerged towards the end of the ancient period in the 3rd century CE and introduced the idea of "the One" as a transcendent and ineffable entity that is the source of all of creation.[145]

Meanwhile in Indian Buddhism, the Madhyamaka school developed the idea that all phenomena are inherently empty without a permanent essence while the consciousness-only doctrine of the Yogācāra school stated that experienced objects are mere transformations of consciousness that do not reflect external reality.[146] The Hindu school of Samkhya philosophy[k] introduced a metaphysical dualism with pure consciousness and matter as its fundamental categories.[147] In China, the school of Xuanxue explored metaphysical problems such as the contrast between being and non-being.[148]

 
Boethius's theory of universals influenced many subsequent metaphysicians.

Medieval Western philosophy was strongly influenced by ancient Greek philosophy. Boethius (477–524 CE) attempted to harmonize Plato's and Aristotle's theories of universals by stating that universals can exist both in matter and in the mind. His theory inspired the philosophies of nominalism and conceptualism, as in the thought of Peter Abelard (1079–1142 CE).[149] Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274 CE) understood metaphysics as the discipline that investigates the different meanings of being, such as the contrast between substance and accident, and principles applying to all beings, such as the principle of identity.[150] William of Ockham (1285–1347 CE) proposed the methodological principles of Ockham's razor as a tool to decide between competing metaphysical theories.[151] Arabic–Persian philosophy, which had its prime period from the early 9th century CE to the late 12th century CE, employed many ideas of the ancient Greek philosophers to interpret and clarify the teachings of the Quran.[152] Avicenna (980–1037 CE) developed a comprehensive philosophical system that examined the contrast between existence and essence and distinguished between contingent and necessary existence.[153] Medieval India saw the emergence of the monist school of Advaita Vedanta in the 8th century CE, which holds that everything is one and that the idea of many entities existing independently is an illusion.[154] In China, Neo-Confucianism arose in the 9th century CE and explored the concept of li as the rational principle that is the ground of being and reflects the order of the universe.[155]

In the early modern period, René Descartes (1596–1650) developed a substance dualism according to which body and mind exist as independent entities that causally interact.[156] This idea was rejected by Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), who formulated a monist philosophy according to which there is only one substance that has both physical and mental attributes developing side-by-side without interacting.[157] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) introduced the concept of possible worlds and articulated a metaphysical system, known as monadology, that understands the universe as a collection of simple substances that are synchronized without causally interacting with one another.[158] Christian Wolff (1679–1754), conceptualized the scope of metaphysics by introducing the distinction between general and special metaphysics.[159] According to the idealism of George Berkeley (1685–1753), everything is mental, including material objects, which are ideas perceived by the mind.[160] David Hume (1711–1776) made various contributions to metaphysics, including the regularity theory of causation and the idea that there are no necessary connections between distinct entities. At the same time, his empiricist outlook led him to formulate a stark criticism of metaphysical theories that aim to arrive at ultimate principles inaccessible to sensory experience.[161] This skeptical outlook was embraced by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). He tried to reconceptualize metaphysics as a critical inquiry into the basic principles and categories of thought and understanding rather than seeing it as an attempt to comprehend mind-independent reality.[162]

Many developments in the later modern period were shaped by Kant's philosophy. German idealists employed his idealistic outlook in their attempt to find a unifying principle as the foundation of all reality.[163] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) developed a comprehensive system of philosophy that examines how absolute spirit manifests itself.[164] He inspired the British idealism of Francis Herbert Bradley (1846–1924), who interpreted absolute spirit as the all-inclusive totality of being.[165] Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a strong critic of German idealism and articulated a different metaphysical vision that takes a blind and irrational will as the underlying principle of reality.[166] Pragmatists like C. S. Peirce (1839–1914) and John Dewey (1859–1952) conceived metaphysics as an observational science of the most general features of reality and experience.[167]

 
Alfred North Whitehead articulated the foundations of process philosophy in his work Process and Reality.

In the 20th century, Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) and other logical positivists formulated a wide-ranging criticism of metaphysical statements by holding that they are meaningless since there is no way to verify them.[168] Another criticism of traditional metaphysics was articulated by ordinary language philosophers who identified misunderstandings of ordinary language as the source of many traditional metaphysical problems.[169] Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) developed process metaphysics as an attempt to provide a holistic description of both the objective and the subjective worlds.[170] Logical atomists, like Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), conceived the world as a multitude of atomic facts, which inspired later metaphysicians such as D. M. Armstrong (1926–2014).[171] Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000) tried to naturalize metaphysics by connecting it to the empirical sciences. His student David Lewis (1941–2001) employed the concept of possible worlds to formulate his modal realism.[172] In continental philosophy, Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) engaged in ontology through a phenomenological description of experience while his student Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) developed fundamental ontology as an attempt to clarify the meaning of being.[173] Heidegger's philosophy inspired general criticisms of metaphysics by postmodern thinkers like Jacques Derrida (1930–2004).[174]

See also edit

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ For example, the metaphysical problem of causation is relevant both to epistemology, as a factor involved in perceptual knowledge, and ethics, in regard to moral responsibility for the consequences caused by one's actions.[6]
  2. ^ The term ontology is sometimes also used as a synonym of metaphysics as a whole.[14]
  3. ^ Some philosophers use the term metaontology as a synonym while others characterize metaontology as a subfield of meta-metaphysics.[22]
  4. ^ According to Meinong, existence is not a synonym of being: all entities have being but not all entities have existence.[28]
  5. ^ Some philosophers use the two terms in slightly different ways.[36]
  6. ^ The classified entities do not have to occur naturally and can encompass man-made products, such as synthetic chemical substances.[45]
  7. ^ A further topic concerns different types of modality, such as the contrast between physical, metaphysical, and logical necessity based on whether the necessity has its source in the laws of nature, the essences of things, or the laws of logic.[50]
  8. ^ Quine's method of analysis relies on logic translation to first-order logic in order to express claims as precisely as possible while relying existential quantifiers to identify their ontological commitments.[105]
  9. ^ The precise date is disputed.[137]
  10. ^ According to traditional accounts, Laozi as the founder of Daoism lived in the 6th century BCE but other accounts state that he may have lived in the 4th or 3rd centuries BCE.[139]
  11. ^ The ideas underlying Samkhya philosophy arose as early as the 7th and 6th centuries BCE but it's classical and systematic formulation is dated 350 CE.[147]

Citations edit

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  9. ^ Tahko 2015, pp. 203–205
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  14. ^ Hawley 2016, p. 166
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  17. ^ a b
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  20. ^ Hawley 2016, pp. 168–169, 171–172
  21. ^ Hawley 2016, p. 174
  22. ^ Tahko 2018, Lead Section
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  28. ^ a b
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  35. ^
  36. ^ Bigelow 1998, Lead Section
  37. ^
  38. ^
  39. ^
  40. ^
  41. ^
    • Berryman 2022, § 2.6 Atomism and Particle Theories in Ancient Greek Sciences
    • Varzi 2019, § 3.4 Atomism, Gunk, and Other Options
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  44. ^
  45. ^
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  48. ^
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  53. ^
  54. ^ Nuttall 2013, p. 135
  55. ^
  56. ^
    • Parent, Lead Section, § 2. Lewis' Realism, § 3. Ersatzism, § 4. Fictionalism
    • Menzel 2023, Lead Section, § 2. Three Philosophical Conceptions of Possible Worlds
    • Campbell 2006, § Modal Realism
  57. ^
  58. ^
  59. ^
  60. ^
  61. ^
  62. ^
  63. ^
  64. ^ Carroll & Markosian 2010, p. 20
  65. ^
  66. ^
  67. ^
  68. ^
  69. ^ Ney 2014, pp. 223–224
  70. ^
  71. ^
  72. ^ Tallant 2017, pp. 231–232
  73. ^ Morton 2005, p. 603
  74. ^
  75. ^
  76. ^
  77. ^ Weisberg, Lead Section, § 1. Stating the Problem
  78. ^
  79. ^
  80. ^
  81. ^
  82. ^
  83. ^
  84. ^
  85. ^
  86. ^ Tallant 2017, p. 1
  87. ^
  88. ^
  89. ^
  90. ^ Koons & Pickavance 2015, pp. 2–3
  91. ^ Tahko 2015, pp. 151–152, 172–173
  92. ^
  93. ^
  94. ^ Tahko 2015, pp. 188–190
  95. ^ Goldenbaum, Lead Section, § 1. The Geometrical Method
  96. ^
  97. ^ Kirk 2023, Lead Section, § 2. Zombies and Physicalism
  98. ^
  99. ^
  100. ^
  101. ^
  102. ^
  103. ^
  104. ^ Ney 2014, p. 41
  105. ^ Ney 2014, pp. 40–41
  106. ^
  107. ^
  108. ^
  109. ^ van Inwagen, Sullivan & Bernstein 2023, § 5. Is Metaphysics Possible?
  110. ^
  111. ^
  112. ^
  113. ^
  114. ^
  115. ^
  116. ^
  117. ^ Rea 2021, pp. 215–216, 223–224
  118. ^
  119. ^
  120. ^ Healey 2016, pp. 356–357
  121. ^ Hawley 2018, pp. 187–188
  122. ^ Hawley 2018, pp. 188–189
  123. ^
  124. ^
  125. ^
  126. ^ Heckmann 2006, p. 42
  127. ^
  128. ^ Goy & Magro 2014, p. 7457
  129. ^
  130. ^ Gopalakrishnan Nair 2014, p. 4594
  131. ^
  132. ^ Ney 2014, pp. 1–2, 18–20
  133. ^
  134. ^
  135. ^
  136. ^
  137. ^ Velez, § 1a. Dates
  138. ^
  139. ^
  140. ^
  141. ^
  142. ^
  143. ^
  144. ^
  145. ^
  146. ^
  147. ^ a b
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Metaphysics

April 18, 2024
metaphysics, other, uses, disambiguation, branch, philosophy, that, examines, fundamental, structure, reality, traditionally, seen, study, mind, independent, features, reality, some, modern, theorists, understand, inquiry, into, conceptual, schemes, that, unde. For other uses see Metaphysics disambiguation Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental structure of reality It is traditionally seen as the study of mind independent features of reality but some modern theorists understand it as an inquiry into the conceptual schemes that underlie human thought and experience The beginning of Aristotle s Metaphysics one of the foundational texts of the disciplineMany general and abstract topics belong to the purview of metaphysics It investigates what existence is which features all entities have in common and how they are divided into categories of being An influential contrast is between particulars which are individual unique entities like a specific apple and universals which are general repeatable entities that characterize particulars like the color red Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary The nature of space and time is another broad topic with metaphysicians discussing how to conceive them and how to conceptualize change A closely related issue concerns the essence of causality and its relation to the laws of nature Other topics include how mind and matter are related whether everything in the world is predetermined and whether there is free will Metaphysicians employ various methods to conduct their inquiry Traditionally they rely on rational intuitions and abstract reasoning but have more recently also included empirical approaches associated with scientific theories Due to the abstract nature of its topic metaphysics has received criticisms questioning the reliability of its methods and the meaningfulness of its theories Metaphysics is relevant to many fields of inquiry that often implicitly rely on metaphysical concepts and assumptions The origin of metaphysics lies in the ancient period with speculations about the nature of reality and the universe like the ones found in the Upanishads in ancient India Daoism in ancient China and pre Socratic philosophy in ancient Greece Aristotle conceived the scope of metaphysics under the title first philosophy and was influential in shaping the discussion of the nature of universals in the subsequent medieval period The modern period saw the emergence of many rationalist and idealist systems of metaphysics In the 20th century various criticisms of earlier theories were voiced and new approaches to metaphysical inquiry were proposed Contents 1 Definition 1 1 Branches 2 Topics 2 1 Existence and categories of being 2 2 Particulars 2 3 Universals 2 4 Possibility and necessity 2 5 Space time and change 2 6 Causality 2 7 Mind and free will 2 8 Others 3 Methodology 4 Criticism 5 Relation to other disciplines 6 History 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Sources 9 External linksDefinition editMetaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality including existence objects and their properties possibility and necessity space and time change causation and the relation between matter and mind It is one of the oldest branches of philosophy 1 The precise nature of metaphysics is disputed and its characterization has changed in the course of history Some approaches see metaphysics as a unified field and give a wide sweeping definition by understanding it as the study of fundamental questions about the nature of reality or as an inquiry into the essences of things Another approach doubts that the different areas of metaphysics share a set of underlying features and provides instead a fine grained characterization by listing all the main topics investigated by metaphysicians 2 Some definitions are descriptive by providing an account of what metaphysicians actually do while others are normative and prescribe what metaphysicians ought to do 3 Two historically influential definitions in ancient and medieval philosophy understand metaphysics as the science of the first causes and as the study of being qua being that is the topic of what all beings have in common and to what fundamental categories they belong In the modern period the scope of metaphysics was extended to cover topics such as the distinction between mind and body and free will 4 Some philosophers follow Aristotle in describing metaphysics as first philosophy implying that it is the most basic inquiry while all other branches of philosophy depend on it in some way 5 a nbsp Immanuel Kant conceived critical metaphysics as the study of the principles underlying all human thought and experience Metaphysics is traditionally understood as a study of mind independent features of reality Starting with Immanuel Kant s critical philosophy an alternative conception gained prominence that focuses on conceptual schemes rather than external reality Kant distinguishes transcendent metaphysics which aims to describe the objective features of reality beyond sense experience from critical metaphysics which outlines the aspects and principles underlying all human thought and experience 7 Metaphysics differs from the individual sciences by studying very general and abstract aspects of reality The individual sciences by contrast examine more specific and concrete features and restrict themselves to certain classes of entities such as the focus on physical things in physics living entities in biology and cultures in anthropology 8 It is disputed to what extent this contrast is a strict dichotomy rather than a gradual continuum 9 Philosophers engaged in metaphysics are called metaphysicians or metaphysicists 10 Outside the academic discourse the term metaphysics is sometimes used in a different sense for the study of occult and paranormal phenomena like metaphysical healing auras and the power of pyramids 11 The word metaphysics has its origin in the ancient Greek words meta meta meaning after above and beyond and phusika fysika as a short form of ta meta ta phusika that is what comes after the physics This is frequently interpreted in the sense that metaphysics discusses topics that due to their generality and comprehensiveness lie beyond the realm of physics and its focus on empirical observation It is often suggested that metaphysics got its name by a historical accident when Aristotle s book on this subject was published Aristotle did not use the term metaphysics but his editor may have coined it for its title to indicate that this book came after the book published on physics The term entered the English language through the Latin word metaphysica 12 Branches edit The nature of metaphysics can also be characterized in relation to its main branches An influential division from early modern philosophy distinguishes between general and special or specific metaphysics 13 General metaphysics also called ontology b takes the widest perspective and studies the most fundamental aspects of being It investigates the features that all entities have in common and how entities can be divided into different categories Categories are the most general kinds such as substance property relation and fact 15 Ontologists research which categories there are how they depend on one another and how they form a system of categories that provides an encompassing classification of all entities 16 Special metaphysics considers being from more narrow perspectives and is divided into subdisciplines based on the perspective they take Metaphysical cosmology examines changeable things and investigates how they are connected to form a world as a totality of entities extending through space and time 17 Rational psychology restricts itself to exploring metaphysical foundations and problems concerning the mind such as its relation to matter and the freedom of the will Natural theology studies the divine and its role as the first cause 17 The scope of special metaphysics overlaps with other philosophical disciplines and it is often not clear whether a topic belongs to it rather than to disciplines like philosophy of mind and theology 18 Applied metaphysics is a young subdiscipline It belongs to applied philosophy and studies the applications of metaphysics both within philosophy and other fields of inquiry In ethics and philosophy of religion it concerns topics like the ontological foundation of moral claims and religious doctrines 19 Applications outside philosophy include the use of ontologies in artificial intelligence economics and sociology to classify entities 20 as well as questions in psychiatry and medicine about the metaphysical status of diseases 21 Meta metaphysics c is the metatheory of metaphysics and investigates the nature and methods of metaphysics It also examines how metaphysics differs from other philosophical and scientific disciplines and how it is relevant to them While the discussions of its topics have a long history in metaphysics it has only recently developed into a systematic field of inquiry 23 Topics editExistence and categories of being edit Main articles Existence and Theory of categories Metaphysicians often see existence or being as one of the most basic and general concepts 24 To exist means to form part of reality and existence marks the difference between real entities and imaginary ones 25 According to the orthodox view existence is a second order property or a property of properties if an entity exists then its properties are instantiated 26 A different position states that existence is a first order property meaning that it is similar to other properties of entities such as shape or size 27 It is controversial whether all entities have this property According to Alexius Meinong there are some objects that do not exist including merely possible objects like Santa Claus and Pegasus 28 d A related question is whether existence is the same for all entities or whether there are different modes or degrees of existence 29 For instance Plato held that Platonic forms which are perfect and immutable ideas have a higher degree of existence than matter which is only able to imperfectly mirror Platonic forms 30 Another key concern in metaphysics is the division of entities into different groups based on underlying features they have in common Theories of categories provide a system of the most fundamental kinds or the highest genera of being by establishing a comprehensive inventory of everything 31 One of the earliest theories of categories was provided by Aristotle who proposed a system of 10 categories Substances e g man and horse are the most important category since all other categories like quantity e g four quality e g white and place e g in Athens are said of substances and depend on them 32 Kant understood categories as fundamental principles underlying human understanding and developed a system of 12 categories which are divided into the four classes quantity quality relation and modality 33 More recent theories of categories were proposed by Edmund Husserl Samuel Alexander Roderick Chisholm and E J Lowe 34 Many philosophers rely on the contrast between concrete and abstract objects According to a common view concrete objects like rocks trees and human beings exist in space and time undergo changes and impact each other as cause and effect while abstract objects like numbers and sets exist outside space and time are immutable and do not enter into causal relations 35 Particulars edit Particulars are individual entities and include both concrete objects like Aristotle the Eiffel Tower or a specific apple and abstract objects like the number 2 or a specific set in mathematics Also called individuals e they are unique non repeatable entities and contrast with universals like the color red which can at the same time exist in several places and characterize several particulars 37 A widely held view is that particulars instantiate universals but are not themselves instantiated by something else meaning that they exist in themselves while universals exist in something else Substratum theory analyzes particulars as a substratum also called bare particular together with various properties The substratum confers individuality to the particular while the properties express its qualitative features or what it is like This approach is rejected by bundle theorists who state that particulars are only bundles of properties without an underlying substratum Some bundle theorists include in the bundle an individual essence called haecceity to ensure that each bundle is unique Another proposal for concrete particulars is that they are individuated by their space time location 38 Concrete particulars encountered in everyday life like rocks tables and organisms are complex entities composed of various parts For example a table is made up of a tabletop and legs each of which is itself made up of countless particles The relation between parts and wholes is studied by mereology 39 The problem of the many is about which groups of entities form mereological wholes for instance whether a dust particle on the tabletop forms part of the table According to mereological universalists every collection of entities forms a whole meaning that the parts of the table without the dust particle form one whole while they together with it form a second whole Mereological moderatists hold that certain conditions have to be fulfilled for a group of entities to compose a whole for example that the entities touch one another Mereological nihilists reject the idea that there are any wholes They deny that strictly speaking there is a table and talk instead of particles that are arranged table wise 40 A related mereological problem is whether there are simple entities that have no parts as atomists claim or not as continuum theorists contend 41 Universals edit Main article Universal metaphysics Universals are general entities encompassing both properties and relations that express what particulars are like and how they resemble one another They are repeatable meaning that they are not limited to a unique existent but can be instantiated by different particulars at the same time For example the particulars Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi instantiate the universal humanity similar to how a strawberry and a ruby instantiate the universal red 42 A topic discussed since ancient philosophy the problem of universals consists in the challenge of characterizing the ontological status of universals 43 Realists argue that universals are real mind independent entities that exist in addition to particulars According to Platonic realists universals exist also independently of particulars which implies that the universal red would continue to exist even if there were no red things A more moderate form of realism inspired by Aristotle states that universals depend on particulars meaning that they are only real if they are instantiated Nominalists reject the idea that universals exist in either form For them the world is composed exclusively of particulars The position of conceptualists constitutes a middle ground they state that universals exist but only as concepts in the mind used to order experience by classifying entities 44 Natural and social kinds are often understood as special types of universals Entities belonging to the same natural kind share certain fundamental features characteristic of the structure of the natural world In this regard natural kinds are not an artificially made up classification but are discovered f usually by the natural sciences and include kinds like electrons H2O and tigers Scientific realists and anti realists are in disagreement about whether natural kinds exist 46 Social kinds are basic concepts used in the social sciences such as race gender money and disability 47 They are studied by social metaphysics and group entities based on similarities they share from the perspective of certain practices conventions and institutions They are often characterized as useful social constructions that while not purely fictional fail to reflect the fundamental structure of mind independent reality 48 Possibility and necessity edit The concepts of possibility and necessity convey what can or must be the case expressed in statements like it is possible to find a cure for cancer and it is necessary that two plus two equals four They belong to modal metaphysics which investigates the metaphysical principles underlying them in particular why it is the case that some modal statements are true while others are false 49 g Some metaphysicians hold that modality is a fundamental aspect of reality meaning that besides facts about what is the case there are additional facts about what could or must be the case 51 A different view argues that modal truths are not about an independent aspect of reality but can be reduced to non modal characteristics for example to facts about what properties or linguistic descriptions are compatible with each other or to fictional statements 52 Following Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz many metaphysicians use the concept of possible worlds to analyze the meaning and ontological ramifications of modal statements A possible world is a complete and consistent way of how things could have been 53 For example the dinosaurs were wiped out in the actual world but there are possible worlds in which they are still alive 54 According to possible world semantics a statement is possibly true if it is true in at least one possible world while it is necessarily true if it is true in all possible worlds 55 Modal realists argue that possible worlds exist as concrete entities in the same sense as the actual world with the main difference being that the actual world is the world we live in while other possible worlds are inhabited by counterparts This view is controversial and various alternatives have been suggested for example that possible worlds only exist as abstract objects or that they are similar to stories told in works of fiction 56 Space time and change edit Main article Philosophy of space and time Space and time are dimensions that entities occupy Spacetime realists state that space and time are fundamental aspects of reality and exist independently of the human mind This view is rejected by spacetime idealists who hold that space and time are constructions of the human mind in its attempt to organize and make sense of reality 57 Spacetime absolutism or substantivalism understands spacetime as a distinct object with some metaphysicians conceptualizing it as a box that contains all other entities within it Spacetime relationism by contrast sees spacetime not as an object but as relations between objects such as the spatial relation of being next to and the temporal relation of coming before 58 In the metaphysics of time an important contrast is between the A series and the B series According to the A series theory the flow of time is real meaning that events are categorized into the past present and future The present keeps moving forward in time and events that are in the present now will change their status and lie in the past later From the perspective of the B series theory time is static and events are ordered by the temporal relations earlier than and later than without any essential difference between past present and future 59 Eternalism holds that past present and future are equally real while according to presentists only entities in the present exist 60 Material objects persist through time and undergo changes in the process like a tree that grows or loses leaves 61 The main ways of conceptualizing persistence through time are endurantism and perdurantism According to endurantism material objects are three dimensional entities that are wholly present at each moment As they undergo changes they gain or lose properties but remain the same otherwise Perdurantists see material objects as four dimensional entities that extend through time and are made up of different temporal parts At each moment only one part of the object is present but not the object as a whole Change means that an earlier part is qualitatively different from a later part For example if a banana ripens then there is an unripe part followed by a ripe part 62 Causality edit Main article Causality Causality is the relation between cause and effect whereby one entity produces or affects another entity 63 For instance if a person bumps a glass and spills its contents then the bump is the cause and the spill is the effect 64 Besides the single case causation between particulars in this example there is also general case causation expressed in general statements such as smoking causes cancer 65 The term agent causation is used if people and their actions cause something 66 Causation is usually interpreted deterministically meaning that a cause always brings about its effect This view is rejected by probabilistic theories which claim that the cause merely increases the probability that the effect occurs This view can be used to explain that smoking causes cancer even though this is not true in every single case 67 The regularity theory of causation inspired by David Hume s philosophy states that causation is nothing but a constant conjunction in which the mind apprehends that one phenomenon like putting one s hand in a fire is always followed by another phenomenon like a feeling of pain 68 According to nomic regularity theories the regularities take the forms of laws of nature studied by science 69 Counterfactual theories focus not on regularities but on how effects depend on their causes They state that effects owe their existence to the cause and would not be present without them 70 According to primitivism causation is a basic concept that cannot be analyzed in terms of non causal concepts such as regularities or dependence relations One form of primitivism identifies causal powers inherent in entities as the underlying mechanism 71 Eliminativists reject the above theories by holding that there is no causation 72 Mind and free will edit Main articles Mind and Free will nbsp Different approaches toward resolving the mind body problemMind encompasses phenomena like thinking perceiving feeling and desiring as well as the underlying faculties responsible for these phenomena 73 The mind body problem is the challenge of clarifying the relation between physical and mental phenomena According to Cartesian dualism minds and bodies are distinct substances They causally interact with each other in various ways but can at least in principle exist on their own 74 This view is rejected by monists who argue that reality is made up of only one kind According to idealism everything is mental including physical objects which may be understood as ideas or perceptions of conscious minds Materialists by contrast state that all reality is at its core material Some deny that mind exists but the more common approach is to explain mind in terms of certain aspects of matter such as brain states behavioral dispositions or functional roles 75 Neutral monists argue that reality is fundamentally neither material nor mental and suggest that matter and mind are both derivative phenomena 76 A key aspect of the mind body problem is the hard problem of consciousness which concerns the question of how physical systems like brains can produce phenomenal consciousness 77 The status of free will as the ability of a person to choose their actions is a central aspect of the mind body problem 78 Metaphysicians are interested in the relation between free will and causal determinism the view that everything in the universe including human behavior is determined by preceding events and laws of nature It is controversial whether causal determinism is true and if so whether this would imply that there is no free will According to incompatibilism free will cannot exist in a deterministic world since there is no true choice or control if everything is determined Hard determinists infer from this observation that there is no free will while libertarians conclude that determinism must be false Compatibilists take a third approach by arguing that determinism and free will do not exclude each other for instance because a person can still act in tune with their motivation and choices even if they are determined by other forces Free will plays a key role in ethics in regard to the moral responsibility people have for what they do 79 Others edit Identity is a relation that every entity has to itself as a form of sameness It refers to numerical identity when the very same entity is involved as in the statement the morning star is the evening star In a slightly different sense it encompasses qualitative identity also called exact similarity and indiscernibility which is the case when two distinct entities are exactly alike such as perfect identical twins 80 The principle of the indiscernibility of identicals is widely accepted and holds that numerically identical entities exactly resemble one another The converse principle known as identity of indiscernibles is more controversial and states that two entities are numerically identical if they exactly resemble one another 81 Another distinction is between synchronic and diachronic identity Synchronic identity relates an entity to itself at the same time while diachronic identity is about the same entity at different times as in statements like the table I bought last year is the same as the table in my dining room now 82 Personal identity is a related topic in metaphysics that uses the term identity in a slightly different sense and concerns questions like what personhood is or what makes someone a person 83 Various contemporary metaphysicians rely on the concepts of truth and truthmakers to conduct their inquiry 84 Truth is a property of linguistic statements or mental representations that are in accord with reality A truthmaker of a statement is the entity whose existence makes the statement true 85 For example the statement a tomato is red is true because there exists a red tomato as its truthmaker 86 Based on this observation it is possible to pursue metaphysical research by asking what the truthmakers of statements are with different areas of metaphysics being dedicated to different types of statements According to this view modal metaphysics asks what makes statements about what is possible and necessary true while the metaphysics of time is interested in the truthmakers of temporal statements about the past present and future 87 Methodology editMetaphysicians employ a variety of methods to arrive at metaphysical theories and formulate arguments for and against them 88 Traditionally a priori methods are the dominant approach They rely on rational intuition and abstract reasoning from general principles rather than sensory experience A posteriori approaches by contrast ground metaphysical theories in empirical observations and scientific theories 89 Some metaphysicians use perspectives from fields such as physics psychology linguistics and history to conduct their inquiry 90 The two approaches are not exclusive and it is possible to combine elements from both 91 Which method a metaphysician employs often depends on their conception of the nature of metaphysics for example whether they see it as an inquiry into the mind independent structure of reality as metaphysical realists claim or the principles underlying thought and experience as some metaphysical anti realists contend 92 A priori approaches often rely on intuitions that is non inferential impressions about the correctness of specific claims or general principles 93 For example arguments for the A theory of time which states that time flows from the past through the present and into the future often rely on pre theoretical intuitions associated with the sense of the passage of time 94 Some approaches use intuitions to establish a small set of self evident fundamental principles known as axioms and employ deductive reasoning to build complex metaphysical systems by drawing conclusions from these axioms 95 Intuition based approaches can be combined with thought experiments which help evoke and clarify intuitions by linking them to imagined situations while using counterfactual thinking to assess the possible consequences of these situations 96 To explore the relation between matter and consciousness some theorists compare humans to philosophical zombies that is hypothetical creatures identical to humans but without conscious experience 97 A related method relies on commonly accepted beliefs instead of intuitions to formulate arguments and theories The common sense approach is often used to criticize metaphysical theories that deviate a lot from how the average person thinks about an issue For example common sense philosophers have argued that mereological nihilism is false since it implies that commonly accepted things like tables do not exist 98 Conceptual analysis a method particularly prominent in analytic philosophy aims to decompose metaphysical concepts into component parts in order to clarify their meaning and identify essential relations 99 In phenomenology the method of eidetic variation is used to investigate essential structures underlying phenomena To study the essential features of any kind of object it proceeds by imagining this object and varying its features to identify which ones are essential and cannot be changed 100 The transcendental method is a further approach and examines the metaphysical structure of reality by observing what entities there are and studying the conditions of possibility without which these entities could not exist 101 Some approaches give less importance to a priori reasoning and see metaphysics instead as a practice continuous with the empirical sciences that generalizes their insights while making their underlying assumptions explicit This approach is known as naturalized metaphysics and is closely associated with the work of Willard Van Orman Quine 102 He relies on the idea that true sentences from the sciences and other fields have ontological commitments that is they imply that certain entities exist 103 For example if the sentence some electrons are bonded to protons is true then it can be used to justify that electrons and protons exist 104 Quine used this insight to argue that one can learn about metaphysics by closely analyzing h scientific claims to understand what kind of metaphysical picture of the world they presuppose 106 In addition to methods of conducting metaphysical inquiry there are various methodological principles used to decide between competing theories by comparing their theoretical virtues Ockham s Razor is a well known principle that gives preference to simple theories in particular to theories that assume that few entities exist Other principles consider explanatory power theoretical usefulness and proximity to established beliefs 107 Criticism edit nbsp David Hume criticized metaphysicians for trying to arrive at knowledge outside the field of sensory experience Despite its status as one of the main branches of philosophy metaphysics has received numerous criticisms putting into question its status as a legitimate field of inquiry 108 One type of criticism states that metaphysical inquiry is impossible because humans do not have the cognitive capacities needed to access the ultimate nature of reality 109 This line of thought leads to a form of skepticism about the possibility of metaphysical knowledge It is often followed by empiricists like Hume who argue that there is no good source of metaphysical knowledge since metaphysics lies outside the field of empirical knowledge and relies on dubious intuitions about the realm beyond sensory experience A closely related concern about the unreliability of metaphysical theorizing is that there a deep and lasting disagreements about metaphysical issues indicating a lack of overall progress 110 Another criticism holds that the problem lies not with human cognitive abilities but with metaphysical statements themselves which are claimed to be neither true nor false but meaningless According to logical positivists for instance the meaning of a statement is given by the procedure used to verify it usually in terms of the observations that would confirm it Based on this controversial assumption they argue that metaphysical statements are meaningless since they do not make predictions about experience 111 A slightly weaker position allows that metaphysical statements have meaning while holding that metaphysical disagreements are merely verbal disputes about different ways to describe the world According to this view the disagreement in the metaphysics of composition about whether there are tables or only particles arranged table wise is a trivial debate about linguistic preferences without any substantive consequences for the nature of reality 112 The position that metaphysical disputes have no meaning or no significant point is called metaphysical or ontological deflationism 113 This view is opposed by serious metaphysicians who contend that metaphysical disputes are about substantial features of the underlying structure of reality 114 A closely related debate between ontological realists and anti realists concerns the question of whether there are any objective facts that determine which metaphysical theories are true 115 A different criticism formulated by pragmatists sees the fault of metaphysics not in its cognitive ambitions or the meaninglessness of its statements but in its practical irrelevance and lack of usefulness 116 It is questionable to what extent the criticisms of metaphysics affect the discipline as a whole or only certain issues or approaches in it For example it could be the case that certain metaphysical disputes are merely verbal while others are substantive 117 Relation to other disciplines editMetaphysics is related to many fields of inquiry by investigating their basic concepts and relation to the fundamental structure of reality For example scientists often rely on concepts such as law of nature causation necessity and spacetime to formulate their theories and predict or explain the outcomes of experiments 118 While the main focus of scientists is on the application of these concepts to specific situations metaphysics examines their general nature and how they depend on each other Physicists formulate specific laws of nature like laws of gravitation and thermodynamics to describe how physical systems behave under various conditions Metaphysicians by contrast ask what all laws of nature have in common for example whether they merely describe contingent regularities or express necessary relations 119 At the same time new scientific findings have also influenced existing and inspired new metaphysical theories Einstein s theory of relativity for instance prompted various metaphysicians to conceive space and time as a unified dimension rather than as independent dimensions 120 Empirically focused metaphysicians often rely on scientific theories to ground their theories about the nature of reality in empirical observations 121 Similar issues pertain to the social sciences where metaphysicians investigate their basic concepts and analyze their metaphysical implications This includes questions like whether social facts arise from non social facts whether social groups and institutions have mind independent existence and how they persist through time 122 Metaphysical assumptions and topics in psychology and psychiatry include the questions about the relation between body and mind whether the nature of the human mind is historically fixed and what the metaphysical status of diseases is 123 Metaphysics is similar to both physical cosmology and theology in its interest in the first causes and the universe as a whole Key differences are that metaphysics relies on rational inquiry while physical cosmology gives more weight to empirical observations and theology is additionally based on divine revelation and faith based doctrines 124 Historically cosmology and theology were considered subfields of metaphysics 125 Suggested Upper Merged OntologyEntity Physical Object Process Abstract Quantity Proposition Attribute Relation Set or Class Fundamental categories in the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology 126 Metaphysics in the form of ontology plays a central role in computer science to classify objects and formally represent information about them Unlike metaphysicians computer scientists are usually not interested in providing a single all encompassing characterization of reality as a whole but instead employ many different ontologies each one concerned only with a limited domain of entities 127 For example a college database may use an ontology with categories such as person teacher student and exam to represent information about academic activities 128 Ontologies provide standards or conceptualizations for encoding and storing information in a structured way which makes it possible to use and transform the information by computational processes for a variety of purposes 129 Some knowledge bases integrate information belonging to various domains which brings with it the problem of handling data that was formulated using different ontologies They do so by providing an upper ontology that defines concepts on a higher level of abstraction to apply to all domains Influential upper ontologies include Suggested Upper Merged Ontology and Basic Formal Ontology 130 Logic as the study of correct reasoning 131 is often used by metaphysicians as a tool to engage in their inquiry and express insights using precise logical formulas 132 Another relation between the two fields concerns the metaphysical assumptions associated with logical systems Many logical systems like first order logic rely on existential quantifiers to express existential statements For instance in the logical formula xHorse x displaystyle exists x text Horse x nbsp the existential quantifier displaystyle exists nbsp is applied to the predicate Horse displaystyle text Horse nbsp to express that there are horses Following Quine various metaphysicians assume that existential quantifiers carry ontological commitments meaning that existential statements imply that the entities over which one quantifies form part of reality 133 History editMain article History of metaphysics nbsp The taijitu symbol shows yin and yang which are concepts of two correlated forces used in Chinese metaphysics to explore the nature and patterns of existence 134 The history of metaphysics examines how the inquiry into the basic structure of reality has evolved in the course of history Metaphysics has its origin in speculations about the nature and origin of the cosmos that go back to ancient civilizations 135 In ancient India starting in the 7th century BCE the Upanishads were written as religious and philosophical texts that examine how ultimate reality constitutes the ground of all being They further explore the nature of the self and how it can reach liberation by understanding ultimate reality 136 This period also saw the emergence of Buddhism in the 6th century BCE i which denies the existence of an independent self and understands the world as a cyclic process 138 At about the same time j in ancient China the school of Daoism was formed and explored the natural order of the universe known as Dao and how it is characterized by the interplay of yin and yang as two correlated forces 140 In ancient Greece metaphysics emerged in the 6th century BCE with the pre Socratic philosophers who gave rational explanations of the whole cosmos by examining the first principles from which everything arises 141 Following them Plato 427 347 BCE formulated his theory of forms which states that eternal forms or ideas possess the highest kind of reality while the material world is only an imperfect reflection of them 142 Aristotle 384 322 BCE accepted Plato s idea that there are universal forms but held that they cannot exist on their own but depend on matter He also proposed a system of categories and developed a comprehensive framework of the natural world through his theory of the four causes 143 Starting in the 4th century BCE Hellenistic philosophy explored the rational order underlying the cosmos and the idea that it is made up of indivisible atoms 144 Neoplatonism emerged towards the end of the ancient period in the 3rd century CE and introduced the idea of the One as a transcendent and ineffable entity that is the source of all of creation 145 Meanwhile in Indian Buddhism the Madhyamaka school developed the idea that all phenomena are inherently empty without a permanent essence while the consciousness only doctrine of the Yogacara school stated that experienced objects are mere transformations of consciousness that do not reflect external reality 146 The Hindu school of Samkhya philosophy k introduced a metaphysical dualism with pure consciousness and matter as its fundamental categories 147 In China the school of Xuanxue explored metaphysical problems such as the contrast between being and non being 148 nbsp Boethius s theory of universals influenced many subsequent metaphysicians Medieval Western philosophy was strongly influenced by ancient Greek philosophy Boethius 477 524 CE attempted to harmonize Plato s and Aristotle s theories of universals by stating that universals can exist both in matter and in the mind His theory inspired the philosophies of nominalism and conceptualism as in the thought of Peter Abelard 1079 1142 CE 149 Thomas Aquinas 1224 1274 CE understood metaphysics as the discipline that investigates the different meanings of being such as the contrast between substance and accident and principles applying to all beings such as the principle of identity 150 William of Ockham 1285 1347 CE proposed the methodological principles of Ockham s razor as a tool to decide between competing metaphysical theories 151 Arabic Persian philosophy which had its prime period from the early 9th century CE to the late 12th century CE employed many ideas of the ancient Greek philosophers to interpret and clarify the teachings of the Quran 152 Avicenna 980 1037 CE developed a comprehensive philosophical system that examined the contrast between existence and essence and distinguished between contingent and necessary existence 153 Medieval India saw the emergence of the monist school of Advaita Vedanta in the 8th century CE which holds that everything is one and that the idea of many entities existing independently is an illusion 154 In China Neo Confucianism arose in the 9th century CE and explored the concept of li as the rational principle that is the ground of being and reflects the order of the universe 155 In the early modern period Rene Descartes 1596 1650 developed a substance dualism according to which body and mind exist as independent entities that causally interact 156 This idea was rejected by Baruch Spinoza 1632 1677 who formulated a monist philosophy according to which there is only one substance that has both physical and mental attributes developing side by side without interacting 157 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 1716 introduced the concept of possible worlds and articulated a metaphysical system known as monadology that understands the universe as a collection of simple substances that are synchronized without causally interacting with one another 158 Christian Wolff 1679 1754 conceptualized the scope of metaphysics by introducing the distinction between general and special metaphysics 159 According to the idealism of George Berkeley 1685 1753 everything is mental including material objects which are ideas perceived by the mind 160 David Hume 1711 1776 made various contributions to metaphysics including the regularity theory of causation and the idea that there are no necessary connections between distinct entities At the same time his empiricist outlook led him to formulate a stark criticism of metaphysical theories that aim to arrive at ultimate principles inaccessible to sensory experience 161 This skeptical outlook was embraced by Immanuel Kant 1724 1804 He tried to reconceptualize metaphysics as a critical inquiry into the basic principles and categories of thought and understanding rather than seeing it as an attempt to comprehend mind independent reality 162 Many developments in the later modern period were shaped by Kant s philosophy German idealists employed his idealistic outlook in their attempt to find a unifying principle as the foundation of all reality 163 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770 1831 developed a comprehensive system of philosophy that examines how absolute spirit manifests itself 164 He inspired the British idealism of Francis Herbert Bradley 1846 1924 who interpreted absolute spirit as the all inclusive totality of being 165 Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 1860 was a strong critic of German idealism and articulated a different metaphysical vision that takes a blind and irrational will as the underlying principle of reality 166 Pragmatists like C S Peirce 1839 1914 and John Dewey 1859 1952 conceived metaphysics as an observational science of the most general features of reality and experience 167 nbsp Alfred North Whitehead articulated the foundations of process philosophy in his work Process and Reality In the 20th century Rudolf Carnap 1891 1970 and other logical positivists formulated a wide ranging criticism of metaphysical statements by holding that they are meaningless since there is no way to verify them 168 Another criticism of traditional metaphysics was articulated by ordinary language philosophers who identified misunderstandings of ordinary language as the source of many traditional metaphysical problems 169 Alfred North Whitehead 1861 1947 developed process metaphysics as an attempt to provide a holistic description of both the objective and the subjective worlds 170 Logical atomists like Bertrand Russell 1872 1970 and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 1951 conceived the world as a multitude of atomic facts which inspired later metaphysicians such as D M Armstrong 1926 2014 171 Willard Van Orman Quine 1908 2000 tried to naturalize metaphysics by connecting it to the empirical sciences His student David Lewis 1941 2001 employed the concept of possible worlds to formulate his modal realism 172 In continental philosophy Edmund Husserl 1859 1938 engaged in ontology through a phenomenological description of experience while his student Martin Heidegger 1889 1976 developed fundamental ontology as an attempt to clarify the meaning of being 173 Heidegger s philosophy inspired general criticisms of metaphysics by postmodern thinkers like Jacques Derrida 1930 2004 174 See also editComputational metaphysics Doctor of Metaphysics Enrico Berti s classification of metaphysics Feminist metaphysics Fundamental question of metaphysics List of metaphysicians Metaphysical groundingReferences editNotes edit For example the metaphysical problem of causation is relevant both to epistemology as a factor involved in perceptual knowledge and ethics in regard to moral responsibility for the consequences caused by one s actions 6 The term ontology is sometimes also used as a synonym of metaphysics as a whole 14 Some philosophers use the term metaontology as a synonym while others characterize metaontology as a subfield of meta metaphysics 22 According to Meinong existence is not a synonym of being all entities have being but not all entities have existence 28 Some philosophers use the two terms in slightly different ways 36 The classified entities do not have to occur naturally and can encompass man made products such as synthetic chemical substances 45 A further topic concerns different types of modality such as the contrast between physical metaphysical and logical necessity based on whether the necessity has its source in the laws of nature the essences of things or the laws of logic 50 Quine s method of analysis relies on logic translation to first order logic in order to express claims as precisely as possible while relying existential quantifiers to identify their ontological commitments 105 The precise date is disputed 137 According to traditional accounts Laozi as the founder of Daoism lived in the 6th century BCE but other accounts state that he may have lived in the 4th or 3rd centuries BCE 139 The ideas underlying Samkhya philosophy arose as early as the 7th and 6th centuries BCE but it s classical and systematic formulation is dated 350 CE 147 Citations edit Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 1 3Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 1 2McDaniel 2020 0 3 An Overview of Metaphysics and Other Areas of PhilosophyMumford 2012 What Is an Introduction Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 1 4Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 1 2McDaniel 2020 0 3 An Overview of Metaphysics and Other Areas of PhilosophyMumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Ney 2014 pp 9 10van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 Lead Section 1 The Word Metaphysics and the Concept of Metaphysics Loux amp Crisp 2017 p 2 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 1 4van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 Lead Section 1 The Word Metaphysics and the Concept of Metaphysics Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 8 10Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 2 3 Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 8 10 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 1 2 6Bengtson 2015 p 35Wood 2009 p 354 Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Ney 2014 p xiiiTahko 2015 pp 206 207 Tahko 2015 pp 203 205 Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Carroll amp Markosian 2010 p 2 Carroll amp Markosian 2010 p 1Turner 1911 s Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 Metaphysics Hoad 1993 pp 291 351Cohen amp Reeve 2021 Lead SectionCarroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 1 2Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Veldsman 2017 pp 1 2Heidegger 1996 p 39 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 3 5 10van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 1 The Word Metaphysics and the Concept of MetaphysicsCraig 1998Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 1 2 Hawley 2016 p 166 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 10 14van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 1 The Word Metaphysics and the Concept of MetaphysicsCampbell 2006 The Categories Of Being Hofweber 2023 3 OntologyCampbell 2006 The Categories Of BeingThomasson 2022 Lead Section a b Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 3 5 10van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 1 The Word Metaphysics and the Concept of Metaphysics Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 10 11Craig 1998 2 Specific Metaphysics Hawley 2016 pp 165 168Brumbaugh 1966 pp 647 648 Hawley 2016 pp 168 169 171 172 Hawley 2016 p 174 Tahko 2018 Lead Section McDaniel 2020 7 Meta metaphysicsTahko 2018 Lead Section Lowe 2005 p 277White 2019 pp 135 200Gibson 1998 pp 1 2Jubien 2004 pp 47 48Vallicella 2010 p 16 Lowe 2005 p 277AHD staff 2022 Casati amp Fujikawa Lead Section 1 Existence as a Second Order Property and Its Relation to QuantificationBlackburn 2008 existence Casati amp Fujikawa Lead Section 2 Existence as a First Order Property and Its Relation to QuantificationBlackburn 2008 existence a b Van Inwagen 2023Nelson 2022 Lead Section 2 MeinongianismJubien 2004 p 49 Casati amp Fujikawa Lead Section 3 How Many Ways of Being Existent McDaniel 2017 p 77 Poidevin et al 2009 pp 227 228Van Inwagen 2023 Thomasson 2022 Lead SectionLoux amp Crisp 2017 pp 11 12Wardy 1998 Lead Section Thomasson 2022 1 1 Aristotelian RealismStudtmann 2024 2 The Ten Fold DivisionWardy 1998 1 Categories in Aristotle Thomasson 2022 1 2 Kantian ConceptualismWardy 1998 1 Categories in Kant Thomasson 2022 1 3 Husserlian Descriptivism 1 4 Contemporary Category SystemsGrim amp Rescher 2023 p 39 Falguera Martinez Vidal amp Rosen 2022 Lead Section 1 Introduction 3 5 The Ways of NegationErasmus 2018 p 93Macnamara 2009 p 94 Bigelow 1998 Lead Section Lowe 2005 p 683MacLeod amp Rubenstein Lead Section 1a The Nature of UniversalsBigelow 1998 Lead SectionCampbell 2006 Particularity and IndividualityMaurin 2019 Lead Section Maurin 2019 Lead SectionCampbell 2006 Particularity and IndividualityBigelow 1998 Lead Section 3 Bundles of PropertiesLoux amp Crisp 2017 pp 82 83 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 250 251Varzi 2019 Lead Section 1 Part and ParthoodCornell Lead Section 2 The Special Composition QuestionTallant 2017 pp 19 21 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 82 83Cornell Lead Section 2 The Special Composition QuestionBrenner 2015 p 1295Tallant 2017 pp 19 21 23 24 32 33 Berryman 2022 2 6 Atomism and Particle Theories in Ancient Greek SciencesVarzi 2019 3 4 Atomism Gunk and Other Options MacLeod amp Rubenstein Lead SectionBigelow 1998a Lead SectionCowling 2019 Lead SectionLoux amp Crisp 2017 pp 17 19 MacLeod amp Rubenstein Lead Section 1c The Problem of UniversalsRodriguez Pereyra 2000 pp 255 256Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 17 19 MacLeod amp Rubenstein Lead Section 2 Versions of Realism 3 Versions of Anti RealismBigelow 1998a 4 Nominalism and RealismLoux amp Crisp 2017 pp 17 19 45 Brzovic Lead SectionBird amp Tobin 2024 Lead Section Brzovic Lead Section 3 Metaphysics of Natural KindsBird amp Tobin 2024 Lead Section 1 2 Natural Kind RealismListon Lead Section Asta 2017 pp 290 291Bird amp Tobin 2024 2 4 Natural Kinds and Social Science Ney 2014 pp 259 263Rea 2021 pp 185 186 Parent Lead SectionLoux amp Crisp 2017 pp 149 150Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 154 155Mumford 2012 8 What Is Possible Hanna 2009 p 196Hale 2020 p 142 Goswick 2018 pp 97 98Wilsch 2017 pp 428 429 446 Goswick 2018 pp 97 98Parent 3 Ersatzism 4 FictionalismWilsch 2017 pp 428 429 Menzel 2023 Lead Section 1 Possible Worlds and Modal LogicBerto amp Jago 2023 Lead SectionPavel 1986 p 50Campbell 2006 Possible Worlds Nuttall 2013 p 135 Menzel 2023 Lead Section 1 Possible Worlds and Modal LogicKuhn 2010 p 13 Parent Lead Section 2 Lewis Realism 3 Ersatzism 4 FictionalismMenzel 2023 Lead Section 2 Three Philosophical Conceptions of Possible WorldsCampbell 2006 Modal Realism Dainton 2010 pp 245 246Janiak 2022 4 2 Absolute Relational Vs Real IdealPelczar 2015 p 115 Hoefer Huggett amp Read 2023 Lead SectionBenovsky 2016 pp 19 20Romero 2018 p 135 Dyke 2002 p 138Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 182 185Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 160 161 Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 179 181Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 206 214 215Romero 2018 p 135 Miller 2018 Lead SectionCosta Lead SectionSimons 2013 p 166 Miller 2018 Lead SectionCosta Lead Section 1 Theories of PersistenceSimons 2013 p 166Hawley 2023 3 Change and Temporal Parts Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 20 22Tallant 2017 pp 218 219 Carroll amp Markosian 2010 p 20 Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 21 22Williamson 2012 p 186 Ney 2014 pp 219 252 253Tallant 2017 pp 233 234 Ney 2014 pp 228 231Williamson 2012 pp 185 186 Lorkowski Lead Section 2 Necessary Connections and Hume s Two Definitions 4 Causal ReductionismCarroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 24 25Tallant 2017 pp 220 221 Ney 2014 pp 223 224 Carroll amp Markosian 2010 p 26Tallant 2017 pp 221 222Ney 2014 pp 224 225 Ney 2014 pp 231 232Mumford 2009 pp 94 95Mumford amp Anjum 2013Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 63 64 Tallant 2017 pp 231 232 Morton 2005 p 603 McLaughlin 1999 pp 684 685Kim 2005 p 608 McLaughlin 1999 pp 685 691Kim 2005 p 608Ramsey 2022 Lead Section Stubenberg amp Wishon 2023 Lead Section 1 3 Mind and Matter RevisitedGriffin 1998 Weisberg Lead Section 1 Stating the Problem Timpe Lead SectionOlson 2001 Mind Body ProblemArmstrong 2018 p 94 O Connor amp Franklin 2022 Lead Section 2 The Nature of Free WillTimpe Lead Section 1 Free Will Free Action and Moral Responsibility 3 Free Will and DeterminismArmstrong 2018 p 94 Kirwan 2005 pp 417 418Noonan amp Curtis 2022 Lead Section Sleigh 2005 p 418Kirwan 2005 pp 417 418Noonan amp Curtis 2022 2 The Logic of Identity Gallois 2016 2 1 Diachronic and Synchronic IdentityNoonan amp Curtis 2022 Lead Section 5 Identity Over Time Noonan amp Curtis 2022 Lead SectionOlson 2023 Lead Section 1 The Problems of Personal IdentityKorfmacher Tallant 2017 pp 1 4Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 15 17 Lowe 2005a p 926Imaguire 2018 p 34Tallant 2017 pp 1 4Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 15 17Asay 2020 p 11 Tallant 2017 p 1 Tallant 2017 pp 1 4 163 165Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 15 17 154 Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp xi 2Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 2 3 Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 2 3Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Tahko 2015 pp 151 152Jaksland 2023 pp 198 199 Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 2 3 Tahko 2015 pp 151 152 172 173 Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 2 3Effingham Beebee amp Goff 2010 p 123Khlentzos 2021 Lead Section 3 The Anti Realist Challenges to Metaphysical Realism Daly 2015 pp 11 12 Introduction and Historical OverviewDuignan 2009aTahko 2015 pp 177 180 Tahko 2015 pp 188 190 Goldenbaum Lead Section 1 The Geometrical Method Tahko 2015 pp 177 178Brown amp Fehige 2019 Lead SectionGoffi amp Roux 2011 pp 165 168 169Eder Lawler amp van Riel 2020 pp 915 916 Kirk 2023 Lead Section 2 Zombies and Physicalism Lawson 2020 pp 185 186Jaksland 2023 pp 198 199 Jackson 1998 pp 28 30Eder Lawler amp van Riel 2020 p 915Shaffer 2015 pp 555 556Audi 2006 Philosophical Methods Drummond 2022 p 75Ryckman 2005 pp 142 144 Coelho 2001 p 128Korner 1984 pp 183 184Pihlstrom 2009 pp 60 61Stern amp Cheng 2023 Lead Section Ney 2014 pp 30 31van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 4 The Methodology of MetaphysicsJaksland 2023 pp 198 199 Ney 2014 pp 37 38 40van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 4 The Methodology of Metaphysics Ney 2014 p 41 Ney 2014 pp 40 41 Ney 2014 pp 40 43van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 4 The Methodology of Metaphysics McDaniel 2020 pp 217 221Ney 2014 pp 48 49Mumford 2012 10 What Is Metaphysics van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 4 The Methodology of MetaphysicsKoons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 2 3 van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 5 Is Metaphysics Possible Manley 2009 pp 1 2 van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 5 Is Metaphysics Possible Rea 2021 pp 211 212Carroll amp Markosian 2010 pp 16 17Koons amp Pickavance 2015 pp 4 5 van Inwagen Sullivan amp Bernstein 2023 5 Is Metaphysics Possible Manley 2009 p 4Rea 2021 pp 212 215Koons amp Pickavance 2015 p 5 Manley 2009 pp 1 4Rea 2021 pp 213 215Tahko 2015 pp 71 72 Manley 2009 pp 4 15 32Sider 2009 pp 386 387 Manley 2009 pp 28 36Kriegel 2016 pp 272 273 Chalmers 2009 pp 77 78Loux amp Crisp 2017 pp 304 305Tahko 2015 pp 65 66 68 Koons amp Pickavance 2015 p 5Macarthur 2020 p 166 Rea 2021 pp 215 216 223 224 Gohner amp Schrenk Lead Section 1 What Is Metaphysics of Science Mumford amp Tugby 2013 pp 1 2Hawley 2018 pp 187 188 Gohner amp Schrenk 3 Why Do We Need Metaphysics of Science 4c Laws of NatureRoberts 2016 pp 337 338 Healey 2016 pp 356 357 Hawley 2018 pp 187 188 Hawley 2018 pp 188 189 Dafermos 2021 pp 1 2 6 7Hawley 2016 p 174 Van Inwagen 2024 pp 6 8Loux amp Crisp 2017 p 10 Dryer 2016 p 490Loux amp Crisp 2017 p 10 Heckmann 2006 p 42 Goy amp Magro 2014 pp 7456 7457Hawley 2016 pp 168 170 Goy amp Magro 2014 p 7457 Goy amp Magro 2014 pp 7456 7457Hawley 2016 pp 168 169 Gopalakrishnan Nair 2014 p 4594 MacFarlane 2017Corkum 2015 pp 753 767Blair amp Johnson 2000 pp 93 95Magnus 2005 pp 12 14 1 6 Formal Languages Ney 2014 pp 1 2 18 20 Shapiro amp Kouri Kissel 2022 2 1 Building BlocksCook 2009 p 111Kind 2018 p 236Casati amp Fujikawa Lead Section 1 Existence as a Second Order Property and Its Relation to Quantification Perkins 2023 Lead SectionLittlejohn 5 Fundamental Concepts in the Daodejing Hancock 2006 p 183Hamlyn 2005 p 590 Perrett 2016 pp 7 10Grayling 2019 Indian PhilosophyAndrea amp Overfield 2015 pp 70 71 Velez 1a Dates Perrett 2016 pp 7 10Velez Lead Section 3 The Buddha s Cosmology and MetaphysicsGrayling 2019 Indian Philosophy Dynes 2016 p 60Littlejohn 2 Classical Sources for Our Understanding of Daoism Littlejohn 5 Fundamental Concepts in the DaodejingDynes 2016 pp 60 61 Hancock 2006 p 183Hamlyn 2005 p 590Kirk 2004 pp 308 310 Hancock 2006 pp 184 185Hamlyn 2005 p 590Graham 3b Metaphysics Hancock 2006 pp 185 187Hamlyn 2005 p 590Graham 4a Terminology 4f Metaphysics Hamlyn 2005 p 590Graham 5a Epicureanism 5c The Stoics Hancock 2006 pp 187 188Hamlyn 2005 pp 590 591Graham 5 Post Hellenistic Thought Grayling 2019 Indian PhilosophyDepraz Varela amp Vermersch 2003 p 212Shun ei 2014 pp 5 6 a b Ruzsa Lead SectionGrayling 2019 Indian Philosophy Chai 2020 p 19Robinet 2013 Chongxuan Hancock 2006 pp 188 189Grayling 2019 Boethius AbelardMarenbon 2009 p 6Sweeney 2016 pp 10 11 Brown 5 MetaphysicsHancock 2006 p 189 Hancock 2006 p 190Grayling 2019 Ockham Grayling 2019 Arabic Persian PhilosophyAdamson amp Taylor 2004 pp 1 3 Grayling 2019 Ibn Sina Avicenna Lizzini 2021 Lead Section 3 Essence and Existence 4 Modality and Existence Grayling 2019 Indian PhilosophyPerrett 2016 The Medieval Period of Indian PhilosophyDalal 2021 Lead Section 2 3 Two Tiered Reality Berthrong Lead Section 4 Traits Themes and MotifsWu 2022 p 56Smart 2008 p 99 Hamlyn 2005 p 591Dehsen 2013 p 51 Hancock 2006 p 190Hamlyn 2005 p 591 Hancock 2006 pp 190 191Hamlyn 2005 p 591Look 2020 4 Metaphysics A Primer on SubstanceMenzel 2023 1 Possible Worlds and Modal Logic Svare 2006 p 15Hettche amp Dyck 2019 5 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April 2024 External links editLibrary resources about Metaphysics Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Metaphysics at PhilPapers Metaphysics at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project Metaphysics Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Metaphysics at Encyclopaedia Britannica nbsp Metaphysics public domain audiobook at LibriVox Portal nbsp PhilosophyMetaphysics at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Definitions from Wiktionary nbsp Media from Commons nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource nbsp Textbooks from Wikibooks nbsp Resources from Wikiversity Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Metaphysics amp oldid 1218782489, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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