![]() Ī person who creates or develops metaphysical theories is called a metaphysician. ![]() Following this tradition, the prefix meta- has more recently been prefixed to the names of sciences to designate higher sciences dealing with ulterior and more fundamental problems: hence metamathematics, metalinguistics, metaphysiology, etc. The term was misread by other medieval commentators, who thought it meant "the science of what is beyond the physical". For instance, Thomas Aquinas understood it to refer to the chronological or pedagogical order among our philosophical studies, so that the "metaphysical sciences" would mean "those that we study after having mastered the sciences that deal with the physical world". However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find other reasons for its appropriateness. The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to have placed the books on first philosophy right after another work, Physics, and called them τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ βιβλία ( tà metà tà physikà biblía) or "the books after the physics". Aristotle himself did not call the subject of his books "metaphysics" he referred to it as " first philosophy" ( Greek: πρώτη φιλοσοφία Latin: philosophia prima). The prefix meta- ("after") indicates that these works come "after" the chapters on physics. ![]() 'after the Physics ' – another of Aristotle's works). It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works into the treatise we now know by the name Metaphysics (μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, meta ta physika, lit. The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά ( metá, "after") and φυσικά ( physiká, "physics"). Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions of: What is it that exists and What it is like. Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence are there. It includes questions about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. Metaphysics is considered one of the four main branches of philosophy, along with epistemology, logic, and ethics. Diamond offers great insights into the nature of, and impediments to, abstract thinking, drawing on the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and placing it in the context of his own research into the Acupuncture Emotional System.Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, including the first principles of: being or existence, identity and change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, and possibility. Diamond increasingly defines his own approach as metaphysical.Īn essential quality of the true metaphysician is the ability to think abstractly, for only then can one rise above the concreteness of everyday reality to the metaphysical realm. The metaphysician equates with what Freud called “a new profession of ministers of souls,” and, although originally a physician, Dr. And though there are many physicians, and though they obviously do important work, true metaphysicians are rare, and are needed at least as much. A metaphysician is a healer who works in a different, higher modality than a physician, the prefix meta deriving from the Greek for “beyond” or “transcending.” So while the physician is concerned with the care of the physical body and mind, the metaphysician tends spirit and soul.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |