CriticaLink | Plato: Phaedrus | Terms

metaphysics

The Greek roots of the word metaphysics, meta and physikos, mean "beyond" "nature" or the "physical". Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals in fundamental questions and concepts: what is "existance"? what is "real"? what is "time"? The issues treated by metaphysics are often abstract, but metaphysical speculation provides the starting-point for virtually all philosophical approaches. Ontology, the study of what can be considered "real", is closely associated with metaphysics. The concerns of theology, the study of the divine being, are also metaphysical.

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