What exactly is metaphysics? The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it as a “division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being and that includes ontology, cosmology, and often epistemology.” The word metaphysics itself is a combination of the words “meta,” which in ancient Greek means “after” and “physics” and it was coined by Aristotle’s ancient editor, who used it quite simply to refer to books that came after the tomes on physics. These aforementioned books dealt with things that “don’t change.” As time went on, Medieval classical text commentators came to misinterpret the word to mean that which goes beyond the physical, and it stuck.
Today, metaphysics can be described as a branch of philosophy that deals with how everything exists, the very act of being, and the world in general. People might say metaphysics forms the very base of philosophy, seeing as it is “the first philosophy” according to Aristotle. It is also called “wisdom.” He also states that it is concerned with the “first causes and the principles of things.” The “what there is” and the “how it is.”
Aristotle went on to divide his metaphysics into three divisions or sections, which remain the main branches of metaphysics: ontology (the study of existence), natural theology (the study of the nature of religion and whether the divine exists), and universal science (the study of the first principles of logic and reasoning.) Today, it is also concerned with a variety of topics, like Jungian psychology, mysticism, self-help studies, meditation, astrology, transcendentalism, and many more.
People who study metaphysics, metaphysicians, say that natural science (which is concerned with discovering everything that there is in the world) is a study on the world of experience. As with the very meaning of the word itself, metaphysics deals with everything that transcends this world of experience, everything that goes “after” the world of the “physical.”
Metaphysics involves showing respect and acknowledgment for the beauty of ALL of creation. It is a religion that foregoes dogma, and it dives into the dimension of immutable laws of nature. It is concerned with the nature of existence, experience, and reality at the ultimate level without being tethered to a manmade religious belief. We can say that it transcends all religions and laws made by man, that it peers into the “ultimate cause in the Universe.”
To do this, metaphysicians ask questions such as, “What is the nature of reality?”, “What does the incorporeal mind do to the physical body?”, “How is the world able to exist? How exactly was it created?” and “What is the objective nature of things if they exist?”
In fact, by asking things like, “What kind of thing am I, exactly? Am I a stream of consciousness? or an immortal soul? Or something else entirely?” you are already taking part in the study of metaphysics. Metaphysicians also study metaphysics in order to find ways it can benefit all human life on both the individual and collective levels. This is why metaphysics is a way of life for many people.