Jan 1, 2026 · Metaphysics, branch of philosophy whose topics in antiquity and the Middle Ages were the first causes of things and the nature of being. Later, many other topics came to be …

metaphysics, Branch of philosophy that studies the ultimate structure and constitution of reality—i.e., of that which is real, insofar as it is real.

Wolff contrasted ontology, or general metaphysics, which applied to all things, with special metaphysical theories such as those of the soul, of bodies, or of God.

Jan 1, 2026 · Subsequent analytic metaphysics was concerned either with problems that had no bearing on that question (e.g., problems regarding modality, ontology, and the nature of time) …

Dec 30, 2025 · The books of the Metaphysics in which he undertakes this investigation, VII through IX, are among the most difficult of his writings. Aristotle gives two superficially …

Critique of Pure Reason, foundational study of the nature and scope of human reason as it relates to metaphysics and epistemology, by the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant …

His writings in ethics and political theory as well as in metaphysics and the philosophy of science continue to be studied, and his work remains a powerful current in contemporary philosophical …

Pythagorean thought was scientific as well as metaphysical and included specific developments in arithmetic and geometry, in the science of musical tones and harmonies, and in astronomy.

What is substance theory, and how does it explain what things are made of? How did philosophers like Aristotle and Descartes view substance differently?

Problem of universals, in metaphysics, the question of whether there are universals—“general” things of which particular things are instances or examples or cases—and, if so, what exactly …