metaphysics

n. [ Gr. &unr_; &unr_; &unr_; after those things which relate to external nature, after physics, fr. &unr_; beyond, after + &unr_; relating to external nature, natural, physical, fr. &unr_; nature: cf. F. métaphysique. 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 ]

☞ 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 ]