metaphysics
pronunciation
How to pronounce metaphysics in British English:
UK [ˌmetəˈfɪzɪks]
How to pronounce metaphysics in American English:
US [ˌmɛtəˈfɪzɪks]
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- Noun:
- the philosophical study of being and knowing
Word Origin
- metaphysics (n.)
- 1560s, plural of Middle English metaphisik, methaphesik (late 14c.), "branch of speculation which deals with the first causes of things," from Medieval Latin metaphysica, neuter plural of Medieval Greek (ta) metaphysika, from Greek ta meta ta physika "the (works) after the Physics," title of the 13 treatises which traditionally were arranged after those on physics and natural sciences in Aristotle's writings. The name was given c.70 B.C.E. by Andronicus of Rhodes, and was a reference to the customary ordering of the books, but it was misinterpreted by Latin writers as meaning "the science of what is beyond the physical." See meta- + physics. The word originally was used in English in the singular; plural form predominated after 17c., but singular made a comeback late 19c. in certain usages under German influence.
Example
- 1. The proper starting point is metaphysics and epistemology .
- 2. On the deepest questions , he believed , cosmology must give way to metaphysics .
- 3. They 're not the only possible positions on the question of the metaphysics of the person .
- 4. That view 's also worth taking seriously in a metaphysics class , but for our purposes , I mention it and put it aside .
- 5. For all he owed to hegelian metaphysics , marx was also an empirical thinker who tried to frame theories about the actual course of historical development .