metaphysics
Definitions
The branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, being, and existence
形而上学：研究实在、存在与本体根本性质的哲学分支
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedmeta- (after; later reread as 'beyond') + physics = 'the things after/beyond the Physics.' Ancient editors literally shelved Aristotle's book on being right after his Physics and labeled it ta meta ta physika. Readers reinterpreted meta as 'beyond,' so metaphysics became the study of what lies beyond the physical: reality and existence itself.
Root physic still carries 8 more wordsWhy It Means This
The name is one of philosophy's great accidents. When Aristotle's works were catalogued, the book that had no title of its own happened to sit after (Greek meta-) the Physics, so it was filed as 'the after-the-Physics writings.' Centuries of readers re-read meta- as 'beyond,' and the bookkeeping label hardened into a discipline: the study of what is beyond the physical — being, cause, reality. A shelving decision became one of the oldest names in Western thought.
Example Sentences
- 1.
Metaphysics asks what it really means for something to exist.
- 2.
He switched from physics to metaphysics, from atoms to being itself.
- 3.
Questions of free will belong to metaphysics, not biology.