From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Metaphysics \Met`a*phys"ics\, n. [Gr. ? ? ? after those things
which relate to external nature, after physics, fr. ? beyond,
after + ? relating to external nature, natural, physical, fr.
? nature: cf. F. m['e]taphysique. See {Physics}. The term was
first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that
part of his writings which came after, or followed, the part
which treated of physics.]
1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal
being; ontology; also, the science of being, with
reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as
distinguished from the science of determined or concrete
being; the science of the conceptions and relations which
are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being;
philosophy in general; first principles, or the science of
first principles.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special.
{General metaphysics} is the science of all being as
being. {Special metaphysics} is the science of one kind
of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of morals,
or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic
exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge
of which is altogether independent of experience, would
constitute the science of metaphysics.
[1913 Webster]
Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics, as
being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which
hath that for title; but it is in another sense:
for there it signifieth as much as "books written
or placed after his natural philosophy." But the
schools take them for "books of supernatural
philosophy;" for the word metaphysic will bear
both these senses. --Hobbes.
[1913 Webster]
Now the science conversant about all such
inferences of unknown being from its known
manifestations, is called ontology, or
metaphysics proper. --Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
Metaphysics are [is] the science which determines
what can and what can not be known of being, and
the laws of being, a priori. --Coleridge.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena;
mental philosophy; psychology.
[1913 Webster]
Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken,
is a science or complement of sciences exclusively
occupied with mind. --Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
Whether, after all,
A larger metaphysics might not help
Our physics. --Mrs.
Browning.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
metaphysics
n 1: the philosophical study of being and knowing
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