What Does Metaphysics Mean?

Recently, a friend and I were hanging out in downtown Lawrence on a sunny, Saturday afternoon.  After our usual trip to Subway, we went down to the Border’s on Vermont Street to see if we could find a few bargains.  As you might know, Border’s is closing over 150 of their bookstores across the nation, and the one in Lawrence is holding an “everything must go” sale.  Fixtures, furniture, and all books must be gone by the time the lease expires.  

While perusing the bookshelves, we came across a bookshelf labeled “metaphysics”.  The shelf contained books about pseudoscience, the occult, paganism, Wicca, and ghosts.  My friend then asked me what metaphysics are, and I didn’t have a great explanation off the top of my head, so I tried to wing it.  I used the example of a book.  “Metaphysics tries to determine whether there is a difference between my perception of this book and the book in itself.”, I explained.  I didn’t get the feeling that he was enlightened, so I went on to give a few examples of metaphysical questions...

-Does God exist?

-Is the external world real?

-What are the contents of reality?

For someone newly acquainted with the study of philosophy, these concepts can be daunting and confusing.  Because my explanation at the time was less than satisfactory, I wanted to give it another shot here.  

The word ‘metaphysics’ was first used by students of Aristotle to mean “after the physics”.  In the philosophical sense, metaphysics deals with questions that go beyond the physics.  Metaphysics attempts to wrestle with questions that lie deeper than other sciences- questions concerning the fundamental assumptions and theoretical foundations of all other disciplines.  As a result, metaphysics came to mean the branch of philosophy that addresses questions about the nature of reality.  Here’s a few examples of metaphysical questions...

-Is there a difference between the way things appear to us and the way they really are?

-Does mental or spiritual reality depend on the physical world, or is it the other way around?

-Is everything that happens predetermined?  If so, does this eliminate the possibility of us making free choices?

-What makes something the same thing at two different times?

-What makes a person the same person throughout the course of his/her life?

As you can see, metaphysics covers a wide range of philosophical topics.  If it helps, you can think of all these questions as having one common theme- the nature of reality.  Particular sciences focus on some aspect of reality, but metaphysics takes in everything that exists and tries to reach conclusions about its basic nature.