Metaphysics | Definition, Problems, Theories, History, & Criticism

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border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics">metaphysics</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/topic/metaphysics">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref344380"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics#ref344380">Nature and scope of metaphysics</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref15809"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics">Problems in metaphysics</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344383"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344383">The reality of the external world</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344384"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344384">The problem in early modern philosophy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344385"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344385">Berkeleyan idealism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344386"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344386">The problem in 20th-century and later philosophy</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344387"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344387">Mind and body</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344388"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344388">Existence</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344389"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344389">Universals and particulars</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344390"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344390">Causation</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344391"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344391">Substance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344392"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344392">Identity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344393"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344393">Persistence through time</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344394"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344394">Modality</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref15839"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Types-of-metaphysical-theory">Types of metaphysical theory</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15840"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Types-of-metaphysical-theory#ref15840">Platonism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15841"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Types-of-metaphysical-theory#ref15841">Aristotelianism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15842"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Types-of-metaphysical-theory#ref15842">Thomism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15843"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism">Cartesianism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344403"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344403">Kantianism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15844"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref15844">Idealism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref15845"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref15845">Materialism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344404"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344404">Naturalism</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref344369"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344369">Contemporary metaphysics</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344370"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344370">Analytic metaphysics in the 20th century</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344371"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344371">Continental metaphysics in the 20th century</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref344372"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344372">Criticisms of metaphysics</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344373"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344373">The epistemology of metaphysics</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref344374"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344374">Specific criticisms</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344375"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344375">Hume</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344376"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344376">Kant</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344377"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344377">The logical positivists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344378"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344378">Moore and Wittgenstein</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref344379"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/metaphysics/Cartesianism#ref344379">Postmodern and other Continental critiques</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a 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Author of <em>Ontology, Identity, and Modality</em> and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Peter van Inwagen</span><span class="text-gray-700 mx-5">•</span><a class="see-all border-gray-700 gtm-byline" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics/additional-info#contributors">All</a> </div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-07T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 7, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Aristotle" topicid="34560">Aristotle</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Plato" topicid="464109">Plato</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Immanuel-Kant" topicid="311398">Immanuel Kant</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel" topicid="259378">Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Rene-Descartes" topicid="158787">René Descartes</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/ontology-metaphysics" topicid="429409">ontology</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/problem-of-universals" topicid="2233338">problem of universals</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/mind-body-problem" topicid="2233337">mind-body problem</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/hylomorphism" topicid="279305">hylomorphism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/personalism" topicid="452990">personalism</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/metaphysics"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref361623"></span>metaphysics</strong>, branch of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">philosophy</a> whose topics in antiquity and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Middle Ages</a> were the first causes of things and the nature of being. In postmedieval philosophy, however, many other topics came to be included under the heading “metaphysics.” (The reasons for this development will be discussed in the body of the article.)</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref344380"> <h2 class="h1">Nature and scope of metaphysics</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 4th century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span> the Greek philosopher <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristotle</a> wrote a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="treatise" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treatise" data-type="MW">treatise</a> about what he variously called “first philosophy,” “first <span id="ref361647"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/science" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">science</a>,” “wisdom,” and “theology.” In the 1st century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>, an editor of his works gave that treatise the title <em>Ta meta ta physika</em>, which means, roughly, “the ones [i.e., books] after the ones about nature.” “The ones about nature” are those books that make up what is today called Aristotle’s <em>Physics</em>, as well other writings of his on the natural world. The <em>Physics</em> is not about the quantitative science now called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/physics-science" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">physics</a>; instead, it concerns philosophical problems about sensible and mutable (i.e., physical) objects. The title <em>Ta meta ta physika</em> probably conveyed the editor’s opinion that students of Aristotle’s philosophy should begin their study of first philosophy only after they had mastered the <em>Physics</em>. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-language" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Latin</a> singular noun <em>metaphysica</em> was derived from the Greek title and used both as the title of Aristotle’s treatise and as the name of its subject matter. Accordingly, <em>metaphysica</em> is the root of the words for <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="metaphysics" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysics" data-type="MW">metaphysics</a> in almost all western European languages (e.g., <em>metaphysics</em>, <em>la métaphysique</em>, <em>die Metaphysik</em>).</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Aristotle provided two definitions of first philosophy: the study of “being as such” (i.e., the nature of being, or what it is for a thing to be or to exist) and the study of “the first causes of things” (i.e., their original or primary causes). The relation between these two definitions is a much-debated question. Whatever its answer may be, however, it is clear that the subject matter of what is today called metaphysics cannot be identified with that of Aristotle’s <em>Metaphysics</em>. While it is certainly true that all the problems that Aristotle considered in his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="treatise" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/treatise" data-type="EB">treatise</a> are still said to belong to metaphysics, since at least the 17th century the word <em>metaphysics</em> has been applied to a much wider range of questions. Indeed, if Aristotle were somehow able to examine a present-day textbook on metaphysics, he would classify much of its content not as metaphysics but as physics, as he understood the latter term. To take only one example, the modern book would almost certainly contain a great deal of discussion of philosophical problems regarding the identity of material objects (i.e., the conditions under which material objects are numerically the same as, or different from, each other; <em>see below</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/metaphysics/Problems-in-metaphysics#ref344392" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Problems in metaphysics: Identity</a>). An ancient example of such a problem is the following: A statue is formed by pouring molten <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/gold-chemical-element" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">gold</a> into a certain mold. The statue is then melted down and the molten gold poured into the same mold and allowed to cool and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="solidify" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/solidify" data-type="EB">solidify</a>. Is the resulting statue the same statue as the original? Such problems evidently do not concern (at least not directly) either being as such or the first causes of things.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The question of why modern metaphysics is a much broader field than the one conceived by Aristotle is not easy to answer. Some partial or contributing causes, however, may be the following.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <ul class="list-none "><li><div> <p>1. The appropriation of the word <em>physics</em> by the quantitative science that now bears that name, with the result that some problems that Aristotle would have regarded as belonging to “physics” could no longer be so classified. As regards the problem of the gold statue, for example, modern physics can explain why the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/melting-point" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">melting point</a> of gold is lower than the melting point of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/iron-chemical-element" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">iron</a>, but it has nothing to say about the identity of recast statues. (It should be pointed out that metaphysicians are not interested in recast statues—or any other remade physical object—as such. Rather, they use such examples to pose very general and abstract questions about <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/time" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">time</a>, change, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a>, and identity and as illustrations of the application of principles that may govern those concepts.)</p> </div></li><li><div> <p>2. Similarity of method between Aristotelian and modern metaphysics. The American philosopher <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-James" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William James</a> (1842–1910) said, “Metaphysics means only an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently.” That is not a bad statement of the only method that is available to students of metaphysics in either its original Aristotelian sense or in its more recent extended sense. If one is interested in questions about the nature of being, the first causes of things, the identity of physical objects, or the nature of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/causation" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">causation</a> (the last two problems belong to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="metaphysics" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/metaphysics" data-type="EB">metaphysics</a> in its modern sense but not its original sense), one will find that the only method available is an “obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently” about them. (Perhaps, indeed, this is the only method available in any branch of philosophy.)</p> </div></li><li><div> <p>3. Overlap of subject matter between Aristotelian metaphysics and Aristotelian physics. The topics “being as such” and “the first causes of things” cannot be wholly divorced from philosophical problems about sensible and mutable objects, the original subject matter of Aristotle’s physics. Sensible and mutable objects, after all, <em>are</em>—that is, they exist—and, if indeed there are first causes of things, they certainly stand in causal relations to those first causes.</p> </div></li></ul> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Whatever the reasons may be, the set of problems to which the word <em>metaphysics</em> now applies is so <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="diverse" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diverse" data-type="MW">diverse</a> that it is very hard to frame a definition that adequately expresses the nature and scope of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="discipline" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discipline" data-type="MW">discipline</a>. Such traditional definitions as “an investigation into the nature of being,” “an attempt to describe the <span id="ref361624"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/reality-of-the-external-world" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">reality</a> that lies behind all appearances,” and “an investigation into the first principles of things” are not only vague and barely informative but also positively inaccurate: each of them is either too broad (it can be applied just as plausibly to philosophical <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="disciplines" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disciplines" data-type="MW">disciplines</a> other than metaphysics) or too narrow (it cannot be applied to some problems that are paradigmatically metaphysical). Thus, the only way to give a useful account of the nature and scope of metaphysics as the term is now understood is to provide a survey of a series of philosophical problems that uncontroversially belong to modern metaphysics. 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Metaphysics | Definition, Problems, Theories, History, & Criticism | Britannica