Metaphysics

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I'm having difficulty grasping the concept. Can anyone enlighten me?

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 4,014 • Replies: 35

[+3] - Ragman - 07/25/2012While I was in college I was kicked out of a Metaphysics exam for looking into the soul of the person sitting next to me.

@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

To me, metaphysics consists of our most basic presuppositions. They are what we start with, and they are fundamentally arbitrary.

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy which is basically concerned with questions of the nature of being. "What is real?" is a metaphysical question, for example. You'd be surprised how many possible answers there are to that and many other questions.
Smile

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

While I was in college I was kicked out of a Metaphysics exam for looking into the soul of the person sitting next to me.

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@Ragman,

As well you should'a been. Serves you right for cheating like that.

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@Lustig Andrei,

My mom was talking about how the universe is all connected by energy and stuff like that. She said that it was a metaphysical outlook, but what you guys are saying doesn't add up with that.

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

Metaphysics might also include theories that are not subject to any kind of falsification or affirmation, belief in the existence of souls, for example.

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@JLNobody,

Quote:

Metaphysics might also include theories that are not subject to any kind of falsification or affirmation, belief in the existence of souls, for example.

Might?

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@Frank Apisa,

I suppose with "might" instead of "do" he unsuccessfully intended to refer to the continued proliferation and integration of those, as they are a process in time, although I didn't quite understood what "affirmation" meant in there...

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

For a long time, one of the biggest failures in dictionaries were words like metaphysics:

Quote:

met·a·phys·ic
[met-uh-fiz-ik] Show IPA
noun
1.
metaphysics.
adjective
2.
metaphysical.
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English metaphisik < Medieval Latin metaphysica (neuter plural); see metaphysics

Related forms
un·met·a·phys·ic, adjective

This was usually what was published in the dictionaries I read to just help me get an idea on the concept. Thankfully they added more then just a very vague self-aware definition.

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

RUNN1NG EMOT10N wrote:

My mom was talking about how the universe is all connected by energy and stuff like that. She said that it was a metaphysical outlook, but what you guys are saying doesn't add up with that.

Well, if we're talking about the philosophical concept of the inter-relatedness of everything then, yes, the notion that everything in the universe is connected by an energy flow would be a part of metaphysics.

If you take the word 'metaphysics' apart, all it means is 'beyond physics' or 'more than physics' (or make up your own translation Smile

). The point is that any study of metaphysics goes beyond what can be proven by a scientist (a pysicist, in this case) working on a specific problem. It involves more than just research and proving the validity of a theory. It involves a large amount of speculation, guided sometimes by nothing more than intuition. So your mom's not entirely wrong, but there's a lot more to it than that.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Thank you. That certainly cleared it up for me. That last part about being guided by no more than intuition reminded me of religion.

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@RUNN1NG EMOT10N,

Actually the dividing line between metaphysics and theology is pretty thin.

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@Lustig Andrei,

I recon a nice suit is a pretty thin line, and I guess Metaphysics it is just that, Theology in a smart suit...but while this certainly it is not a compliment to Metaphysics, still it isn't that big a critic of Theology either...

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@Fil Albuquerque,

Whatever metaphor works is fine with me. Wink

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@Lustig Andrei,

I find all quite entertaining and amusing, particularly when reading the usually flamed and invigorated marching speeches, of those very promising young souls, insistently knocking on heavens door with a truck full of sand hoping someone will attend...

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@Fil Albuquerque,

Well, of course, it's difficult to construct a working model of one's perceived universe without recourse to metaphysics in some form, even if it's no more than a negation and denial of all previously existing systems. The greatest minds of the 19th Century found it quite impossible.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Philosophy is the washed down version of it, working exactly like light, it shows us the way, but it has a speed limit...
...as for science, well science likes to go up and down ladders without very much knowing where the damn ground is... Mr. Green

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I'm barely keeping up with you guys!

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

Well, of course, it's difficult to construct a working model of one's perceived universe without recourse to metaphysics in some form, even if it's no more than a negation and denial of all previously existing systems. The greatest minds of the 19th Century found it quite impossible.

We shoulda heard an "ouch" from Fil after this one! Wink

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