Metaphysicians might claim that natural science investigates the world of experience, while metaphysical questions concern aspects of reality that transcend experience. So is metaphysics just lazy physics, long past its sell-by date? The difference is that the natural scientists base their answers on observation, experiment, measurement and calculation, while the metaphysicians base theirs on armchair reflection. For doesn’t natural science find out what there is in the world, and how it is structured? If so, what room is left for metaphysics? Natural scientists and metaphysicians may seem to be asking the same questions. There is a deeper problem about how metaphysics relates to physics and the rest of natural science, apart from the origins of the words. Thus the idea that everything changes counts as metaphysical, even though it rules out the subject matter of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Today, the word ‘metaphysics’ is used more widely, for the branch of philosophy that studies, in a very general way, what there is and how it is.
The physics books discussed things that change the metaphysics books discussed things that don’t change. The word ‘metaphysics’ was coined by an ancient editor of Aristotle’s works, who simply used it for the books listed after those on physics.
Actually, ‘meta’ in ancient Greek meant ‘after’. Metaphysics sounds as though it should be something like physics, only meta. Sprite-icon-accessible-parking sprite-icon-apple-podcasts sprite-icon-arrow-up sprite-icon-audio-description sprite-icon-baby-changing-facilities sprite-icon-british-sign-language sprite-icon-caret sprite-icon-chevron-in-circle sprite-icon-chevron sprite-icon-cross sprite-icon-deezer sprite-icon-disabled-parking sprite-icon-down-block-arrow sprite-icon-download sprite-icon-external Facebook sprite-icon-google-podcasts sprite-icon-hearing-loop sprite-icon-instagram LinkedIn sprite-icon-live-subtitling sprite-icon-medium sprite-icon-menu sprite-icon-minus-in-circle sprite-icon-online-and-in-person sprite-icon-online-event sprite-icon-open-quote sprite-icon-padlock sprite-icon-pause sprite-icon-play sprite-icon-plus-in-circle sprite-icon-podcast-addict sprite-icon-quote sprite-icon-right-arrow sprite-icon-search sprite-icon-soundcloud-blank sprite-icon-soundcloud sprite-icon-spotify sprite-icon-stitcher sprite-icon-subtitles Twitter sprite-icon-up-block-arrow Vimeo sprite-icon-warning sprite-icon-wheelchair-accessible-venue sprite-icon-youtube
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