Metaphysics is the branch of

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of

being In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

and the world.Geisler, Norman L. "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics" page 446. Baker Books, 1999 Someone who studies metaphysics can be called either a "metaphysician" or a "metaphysicist".Random House Dictionary Online
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A

Absolute idealism Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as Josi ...

Absolute time and space Absolute space and time is a concept in physics and philosophy about the properties of the universe. In physics, absolute space and time may be a preferred frame. Before Newton A version of the concept of absolute space (in the sense of a preferr ...

Abstract object In metaphysics, the distinction between abstract and concrete refers to a divide between two types of entities. Many philosophers hold that this difference has fundamental metaphysical significance. Examples of concrete objects include plants, hum ...

Absurdism Absurdism is the philosophical theory that existence in general is absurd. This implies that the world lacks Meaning of life, meaning or a higher purpose and is not fully intelligible by reason. The term "absurd" also has a more specific sense ...

Accident (philosophy) An accident (Greek ), in metaphysics and philosophy, is a property that the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity. An accident does not affect its essence. It does not mean an "accident" a ...

Accidentalism (philosophy) In philosophy, accidentalism denies the causal closure of physical determinism and maintains that events can succeed one another haphazardly or by chance (not in the mathematical but in the popular sense). Opponents of accidentalism maintain that wh ...

-- Action theory (philosophy) Actualism --

Adolph Stöhr Adolph Stöhr (February 24, 1855 – February 10, 1921) was professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna. His lectures and publications covered subjects such as logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language, experimental psychology, psycholog ...

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

Alvin Plantinga -- Ananda Coomaraswamy -- Anti-realism -- Apologism --

Arda Denkel __NOTOC__ Arda Denkel (6 July 1949 – 21 May 2000) was a Turkish philosopher. He studied at the University of Oxford and, under Peter Strawson, wrote his D.Phil. dissertation which he later developed into a more expansive study with his book ' ...

-- Aristotelianism -- Aristotle --

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

Axiology Axiology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''axia'': "value, worth"; and , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia'': "study of") is the Philosophy, philosophical study of value (ethics), value. It includes questions about the nature and classification of values ...

B

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

Being In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

-- Bertrand Russell --

Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy The aspects of Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy cover the changing viewpoints of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), from his early writings in 1896 until his death in February 1970. Philosophical work Russell is ...

Body hopping Body hopping is the ability and desire to possess people in quick succession. A body hopper can transfer quickly from one physical body to another physical body with little or no resistance and few conditions on moving on to a new body, and usually ...

Borussian myth The Borussian myth or Borussian legend is the name given by early 20th-century historians of German history to the earlier idea that German unification was inevitable, and that it was Prussia's destiny to accomplish it. The Borussian myth is an exa ...

Brian Leftow Brian Leftow (born 1956) is an American philosopher specializing in philosophy of religion, medieval philosophy, and metaphysics. He is the William P. Alston Professor for the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University. Previously, he held the N ...

Bundle theory Bundle theory, originated by the 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume, is the ontological theory about objecthood in which an object consists only of a collection (''bundle'') of properties, relations or tropes. According to bundle the ...

C

C. D. Broad --

Carlo Michelstaedter Carlo Raimondo Michelstaedter or Michelstädter (3 June 1887 – 17 October 1910) was an Italian philosopher, artist, and man of letters. Life Carlo Michelstaedter was born in Gorizia, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian County of Gorizia and ...

Categories of the understanding In Immanuel Kant's philosophy, a category (german: Categorie in the original or ''Kategorie'' in modern German) is a pure concept of the understanding (''Verstand''). A Kantian category is a characteristic of the appearance of any object in gener ...

-- Category of being --

Causality Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cau ...

-- Charles François d'Abra de Raconis -- Choice -- Church of Divine Science -- Clinamen -- Cogito ergo sum

Compatibilism and incompatibilism Compatibilism is the belief that free will and determinism are mutually compatible and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Compatibilists believe that freedom can be present or absent in situations for re ...

-- Conatus -- Concept -- Conceptualism -- Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments --

Container space The container theory of space is a Metaphysics, metaphysical theory according to which space is a background against which objects rest and move, with the implication that it can continue to exist in the absence of matter. Its opposite is the relat ...

-- Counterpart theory -- Creative visualization --

D

Damon Young Damon Young (born 1975 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian philosopher, writer and commentator, and author of the books ''Distraction'', ''Philosophy in the Garden'' and ''How to Think About Exercise''. He is an Honorary Fellow in Philo ...

-- David Kellogg Lewis -- David Kolb --

David Wiggins David Wiggins (born 1933) is an English moral philosopher, metaphysician, and philosophical logician working especially on identity and issues in meta-ethics. Biography David Wiggins was born on 8 March 1933 in London, the son of Norman and D ...

-- Dean Zimmerman (philosopher) --

Dermot Moran Dermot Moran () is an Irish philosopher specialising in phenomenology and in medieval philosophy, and he is also active in the dialogue between analytic and continental philosophy. He is currently the inaugural holder of the Joseph Chair in Cat ...

Determinism Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...

-- Dickinson S. Miller -- Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit --

Doctrine of internal relations The doctrine of internal relations is the philosophical doctrine that all relations are internal to their bearers, in the sense that they are essential to them and the bearers would not be what they are without them. It was a term used in British ...

-- Donald Davidson (philosopher) -- Dorothy Emmet --

Downward causation In philosophy, downward causation is a causal relationship from higher levels of a system to lower-level parts of that system: for example, mental events acting to cause physical events. The term was originally coined in 1974 by the philosopher and ...

Dualistic cosmology Dualism in cosmology or dualistic cosmology is the moral or spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditi ...

-- Duns Scotus --

Duration (Bergson) Duration (French: ''la durée'') is a theory of time and consciousness posited by the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson sought to improve upon inadequacies he perceived in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer, due, he believed, to Spencer ...

Dynamism (metaphysics) Dynamism is a general name for a group of philosophical views concerning the nature of matter. However different they may be in other respects, all these views agree in making matter consist essentially of simple and indivisible units, substances, o ...

Dysteleology Dysteleology, also known as the argument from poor design, is the philosophical view that existence has no ''telos'' - no final cause from purposeful design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for th ...

E

Edward N. Zalta Edward Nouri Zalta (; born March 16, 1952) is an American philosopher who is a senior research scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He received his BA at Rice University in 1975 and his PhD fro ...

Elbow Room (Dennett book) ''Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting'' is a 1984 book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett, in which Dennett discusses the philosophical issues of free will and determinism. In 1983, Dennett delivered the John Locke Lect ...

-- Eleatics --

Embodied cognition Embodied cognition is the theory that many features of cognition, whether human or otherwise, are shaped by aspects of an organism's entire body. Sensory and motor systems are seen as fundamentally integrated with cognitive processing. The cognit ...

Emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

Endurantism Endurantism or endurance theory is a philosophical theory of persistence and identity. According to the endurantist view, material objects are persisting three-dimensional individuals wholly present at every moment of their existence, which goes ...

-- Entity -- Essence --

Essentialism Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...

-- Eternalism (philosophy of time) --

Eternity of the world The eternity of the world is the question of whether the world has a beginning in time or has existed from eternity. It was a concern for both Ancient philosophy, ancient philosophers and the Medieval theology, medieval theologians and Medieval p ...

-- Event (philosophy) -- Evil demon --

Exemplification theory Exemplification theory is a theory that states that an event is the exemplification of a property in an entity. This identity is often modeled as an "ordered triple" of an entity, property type, and time. Overview Much of exemplification theory is ...

-- Existence -- Existentialism -- Experience --

Extension (metaphysics) In metaphysics, extension signifies both 'stretching out' (Latin: ''extensio'') as well as later 'taking up space', and most recently, spreading one's internal mental cognition into the external world. The history of thinking about ''extension'' ca ...

F

Face-to-face -- Ferdinando Cazzamalli --

Form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

-- Formal distinction -- Fragmentalism --

Frankfurt counterexamples Frankfurt cases (also known as Frankfurt counterexamples or Frankfurt-style cases) were presented by philosopher Harry Frankfurt in 1969 as counterexamples to the principle of alternate possibilities (PAP), which holds that an agent is morally resp ...

-- Free will -- Free will in antiquity --

Frithjof Schuon Frithjof Schuon (, , ; 18 June 1907 – 5 May 1998) was a Swiss metaphysician of German descent, belonging to the Perennialist or Traditionalist School of thought. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spirituali ...

G

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel --

George Berkeley George Berkeley (; 12 March 168514 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immate ...

-- G. E. Moore -- Gerardus Everardus Tros -- Gilbert Simondon -- Gottfried Leibniz -- Graham Priest --

Growing block universe The growing block universe theory of time (or the growing block view), states that the past and present both exist, and the future as yet does not. The present is an objective property, to be compared with a moving spotlight. By the passage of tim ...

-- Gunk (mereology) --

H

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

Hindu idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...

-- Human spirit --

Humanistic naturalism Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method, combined with the social and ethical values of humanism. Concepts of spi ...

Huna (New Thought) Huna ( Hawaiian for "secret") is the word adopted by Max Freedom Long (1890–1971) in 1936 to describe his theory of metaphysics. Long cited what he believed to be the spiritual practices of the ancient Hawaiian kahunas (priests) as inspiratio ...

-- Hylomorphism -- Hylozoism --

I

Ian Rumfitt Ian Rumfitt is a British philosopher currently serving as a senior research fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Life He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was also a junior research fellow, and at P ...

-- Idea -- Idealism -- Identity and change --

Identity (philosophy) In philosophy, identity (from , "sameness") is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to List of unsolved problems in philosophy, many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles (if ' ...

-- Identityism -- Immanence -- Immanuel Kant --

Impenetrability In metaphysics, impenetrability is the name given to that quality of matter whereby two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. The philosopher John Toland argued that impenetrability and extension (metaphysics), extension were suffici ...

Indefinite monism Indefinite Monism is a philosophical conception of reality that asserts that only Awareness is real and that the wholeness of Reality can be conceptually thought of in terms of immanent and transcendent aspects. The immanent aspect is denominate ...

-- Indeterminism -- Information --

Inherence Inherence refers to Empedocles' idea that the qualities of matter come from the relative proportions of each of the four elements entering into a thing. The idea was further developed by Plato and Aristotle. Overview That Plato accepted (or ...

Intention Intentions are mental states in which the agent commits themselves to a course of action. Having the plan to visit the zoo tomorrow is an example of an intention. The action plan is the ''content'' of the intention while the commitment is the ''a ...

Introduction to Metaphysics (Bergson) "Introduction to Metaphysics" (French: "Introduction à la Métaphysique") is a 1903 essay about the concept of reality by Henri Bergson. For Bergson, reality occurs not in a series of discrete states but as a process similar to that described by ...

Intuition (Bergson) Intuition is the philosophical method of French philosopher Henri Bergson. In ''An Introduction to Metaphysics'', Bergson introduces two ways in which an object can be known: absolutely and relatively. Pertaining to each mode of knowledge is a m ...

Involution (philosophy) The term involution has various meanings. In some instances it refers to a process prior to evolution which gives rise to the cosmos, in others it is an aspect of evolution, and in still others it is a process that follows the completion of evoluti ...

-- Irrealism (philosophy) --

J

Jay Rosenberg Jay Frank Rosenberg (April 18, 1942, Chicago – February 21, 2008, Chapel Hill, North Carolina) was an American philosopher and historian of philosophy. He spent his teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joi ...

-- Jean-Paul Sartre --

Jewish Science Jewish Science is a Judaic spiritual movement comparable with the New Thought Movement. Many of its members also attend services at conventional synagogues. It is an interpretation of Jewish philosophy that was originally conceived by Rabbi ...

-- John Hawthorne --

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

-- Joseph Murphy (author) -- Judith Jarvis Thomson --

K

Kit Fine Kit Fine (born 26 March 1946) is a British philosopher, currently university professor and Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University. Prior to joining the philosophy department of NYU in 1997, he taught at the Uni ...

L

Law of attraction (New Thought) The law of attraction is the New Thought spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.Whittaker, SSecret attraction, ''The Montreal Gazette'', 12 May 2007. The belief is based ...

Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever ''Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever'' (1780) is a multi-volume series of books on metaphysics by eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley. Priestley wrote a series of important metaphysics works during the years he spent serving ...

Libertarianism (metaphysics) Libertarianism is one of the main philosophical positions related to the problems of free will and determinism which are part of the larger domain of metaphysics. In particular, libertarianism is an incompatibilist position which argues that free ...

-- List of metaphysicians -- Logical atomism --

Logical holism In Philosophy, logical holism is the belief that the world operates in such a way that no part can be known without the whole being known first. Theoretical holism is a theory in philosophy of science, that a theory of science can only be underst ...

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

M

Mahmoud Khatami Mahmoud Khatami (Persian: محمود خاتمی; born 1962 or 1963) is an Iranian philosopher. Life Mahmoud Khatami grew up in Tehran. Showing an early interest in humanities, he attended the Seminary of Islamic Studies, which gained him the tr ...

Marcus Fronius Marcus Fronius (1659 – 14 April 1713) was a Lutheran theologian, pedagogue, and author whose published works covered topics such as theology, metaphysics, and humoral physiology.Paul Philippi. "Fronius, Marcu ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' ( ...

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

Mary Ellen Tracy Mary Ellen Tracy (aka Sabrina Aset) (born 1943) is the high priestess of the Church of the Most High Goddess, who was convicted in 1989 of a single misdemeanor count of running a house of prostitution in connection with the operation of the chu ...

-- Material monism -- Material substratum --

Materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...

-- Matter (philosophy) --

Meaning (existential) Meaning in existentialism is ''descriptive''; therefore it is unlike typical, ''prescriptive'' conceptions of "the meaning of life". Due to the methods of existentialism, prescriptive or declarative statements about meaning are unjustified. The r ...

Meaning of life The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "What ...

-- Mechanism (philosophy) -- Meditations on First Philosophy --

Meliorism Meliorism (Latin ''melior'', better) is the idea that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which ...

Melissus of Samos Melissus of Samos (; grc, Μέλισσος ὁ Σάμιος; ) was the third and last member of the ancient school of Eleatic philosophy, whose other members included Zeno and Parmenides. Little is known about his life, except that he was the co ...

-- Mental representation -- Meta-ontology -- Metametaphysics --

Metaphysical naturalism Metaphysical naturalism (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by ...

-- Metaphysical nihilism -- Metaphysical Society -- Metaphysical Society of America -- Metaphysics --

Michael Devitt Michael Devitt (born 1938) is an Australian philosopher currently teaching at the City University of New York in New York City. His primary interests include philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. His curre ...

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

-- Mind-body dualism -- Monism -- Morris Lichtenstein --

Motion (physics) In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

N

Nathan Salmon -- Natural law -- Naturalism (philosophy) -- Necessary and sufficient condition -- New Age --

New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...

Nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

Nominalism -- Non-essentialism -- Noneism -- Notion (philosophy) -- Noumenon --

O

Object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

-- Objective idealism -- Objectivism -- Ontological pluralism -- Ontology -- Open individualism Organicism -- Other --

P

P. F. Strawson Peter Frederick Strawson (; 23 November 1919 – 13 February 2006) was an English philosopher. He was the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) from 1968 to 1987. Before that, he w ...

Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (; grc-gre, Παρμενίδης ὁ Ἐλεάτης; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia. Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, from a wealthy and illustrious family. His dates a ...

-- Participation (philosophy) -- Particular -- Pattern -- Paul Benacerraf --

Paul Weiss (philosopher) Paul Weiss (; May 19, 1901 – July 5, 2002) was an American philosopher. He was the founder of ''The Review of Metaphysics'' and the Metaphysical Society of America. Early life and education Paul Weiss grew up on the Lower East Side of New Yo ...

-- Perception -- Perdurantism -- Personal identity --

Peter Glassen Peter Glassen (1920–1986) was a professor of philosophy at the University of Manitoba from 1949 until his death in 1986. He was an analytic moral philosopher, publishing several articles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was also known for h ...

Peter Unger Peter K. Unger (; born April 25, 1942) is a contemporary American philosopher and professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University. His main interests lie in the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy o ...

Peter van Inwagen Peter van Inwagen (; born September 21, 1942) is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or N ...

Peter Wessel Zapffe Peter Wessel Zapffe (18 December 1899 – 12 October 1990) was a Norwegian philosopher, author, artist, lawyer and mountaineer. He is often noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence. His system of ph ...

Phenomenalism In metaphysics, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli (e.g. redness, hardness, softness, sweetness, etc.) situated in time and in sp ...

-- Philosophical realism --

Philosophical theology Philosophical theology is both a branch and form of theology in which philosophical methods are used in developing or analyzing theological concepts. It therefore includes natural theology as well as philosophical treatments of orthodox and heter ...

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

-- Philosophy of mind -- Philosophy of Organism -- Philosophy of space and time --

Philosophy of Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

-- Physical body --

Physicalism In philosophy, physicalism is the metaphysical thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substanc ...

-- Physis -- Pirsig's metaphysics of Quality -- Plato -- (Plato) The cave -- (Plato) The divided line -- (Plato) The Sun -- Platonic idealism -- Platonic realism -- Plotinus -- Pluralism (philosophy) -- Practical Metaphysics -- Predeterminism -- Primary/secondary quality distinction --

Principle A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a Legal rule, rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, suc ...

-- Principle of individuation --

Projectivism Projectivism in philosophy involves attributing (projecting) qualities to an object as if those qualities actually belong to it. It is a theory for how people interact with the world and has been applied in both ethics and general philosophy. It ...

-- Property (philosophy) --

Psychonautics Psychonautics (from the Ancient Greek ' 'soul, spirit, mind' and ' 'sailor, navigator') refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by meditatio ...

Q

Qualia -- Quality (philosophy) -- Quantity -- Quiddity -- Quietism --

R

Rational mysticism Rational mysticism, which encompasses both rationalism and mysticism, is a term used by scholars, researchers, and other intellectuals, some of whom engage in studies of how altered states of consciousness or transcendence such as trance, vision ...

-- Reality --

Reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...

Reflexive monism Reflexive monism is a philosophical position developed by Max Velmans, in his books '' Understanding Consciousness'' (2000, 2009) and ''Toward a Deeper Understanding of Consciousness'' (2017), to address the problems of consciousness. It is a moder ...

-- Relational space -- Relativism -- Religious Science -- René Descartes -- Rhonda Byrne --

Robert Merrihew Adams Robert Merrihew Adams (born September 8, 1937) is an American analytic philosopher, specializing in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, and the history of early modern philosophy. Life and career Adams was born on September 8, 1937, ...

Robert Stalnaker Robert Culp Stalnaker (born 1940) is an American philosopher who is Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Correspond ...

S

Saul Kripke -- Scientific realism -- Self (philosophy) --

Shadworth Hodgson Shadworth Hollway Hodgson, FBA (1832 – 13 June 1912) was an English philosopher. Biography He worked independently, without academic affiliation. He was acknowledged by William James as a forerunner of Pragmatism, although he viewed his work ...

-- Simple (philosophy) -- Simulacra and Simulation --

Simulated reality The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live i ...

Simulation hypothesis The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of our existence is a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation. The simulation hypothesis bears a close resemblance to various other skeptical scenarios from throughout the history of philosophy. ...

Simulism The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live ...

-- Solipsism -- Soul -- Space -- Species (metaphysics) --

Speculative realism Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of p ...

-- Stoic categories --

Stuart Wilde Stuart Wilde (24 September 1946 – 1 May 2013) was a British writer. Best known for his works on New Age, self-empowerment, and spirituality, he was also a lecturer, teacher, humorist, essayist, scriptwriter, lyricist, and music producer. He wa ...

Subject Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...

-- Subject (philosophy) -- Subjectivism --

Substance Substance may refer to: * Matter, anything that has mass and takes up space Chemistry * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composition * Drug substance ** Substance abuse, drug-related healthcare and social policy diagnosis ...

Substance theory Substance theory, or substance–attribute theory, is an ontological theory positing that objects are constituted each by a ''substance'' and properties borne by the substance but distinct from it. In this role, a substance can be referred to as a ...

-- Sufi metaphysics -- Supervenience --

T

Teaism ''A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of ''chadō'' (''teaism'') to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of ...

-- Teleology --

Temporal finitism Temporal finitism is the doctrine that time is finite in the past. The philosophy of Aristotle, expressed in such works as his ''Physics'', held that although space was finite, with only void existing beyond the outermost sphere of the heavens, ti ...

-- Temporal parts -- Terence Parsons --

The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Illustrated ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

-- The Philosophical Library -- The Realms of Being -- Theoretical physics --

Theory of everything (philosophy) In philosophy, a theory of everything (ToE) is an ultimate, all-encompassing explanation or description of nature or reality.Rescher, Nicholas (2006a). "Holistic Explanation and the Idea of a Grand Unified Theory". ''Collected Papers IX: Studies ...

-- Theory of Forms -- Theosophy -- Thomas Aquinas --

Thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, a ...

-- Time -- Transcendental idealism -- Transcendental perspectivism -- Trenton Merricks -- Truth --

Truth-value link The principle of truth-value links is a concept in metaphysics discussed in debates between philosophical realism and anti-realism. Philosophers who appeal to truth-value links in order to explain how individuals can come to understand parts of th ...

Tychism Tychism ( el, τύχη, translation=chance) is a thesis proposed by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce that holds that absolute chance, or indeterminism, is a real factor operative in the universe. This doctrine forms a central part o ...

-- Type (metaphysics) --

U

Unity Church --

Universal (metaphysics) In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...

Universal mind Universal mind or universal consciousness is a metaphysical concept suggesting an underlying essence of all being and becoming in the universe. It includes the being and becoming that occurred in the universe prior to the arising of the concept ...

-- Universal reason -- Universality (philosophy) -- Unobservable --

V

Value (ethics) -- Voluntarism (metaphysics) --

W

Wallace Wattles Wallace Delois Wattles (; 1860 – 7 February 1911) was an American New Thought writer. He remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and self-help movements. Wattles' bes ...

-- Will (philosophy) --

Will to live is a 1999 Japanese comedy drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō starring Rentarō Mikuni and Shinobu Otake. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival. Plot Yasukichi visits Mount K ...

-- Willard Van Orman Quine -- William Alston --

William Desmond (philosopher) William James Desmond (born January 7, 1951) is an Irish philosopher who has written on ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and religion. Desmond earned his B.A. and M.A. from University College, Cork, in 1972 and 1974; Ph.D. from Pennsylvania St ...

William Lycan William G. Lycan (; born September 26, 1945) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was formerly the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor. Since 2011, Lycan is also ...

Wolfgang Smith Wolfgang Smith (born February 18, 1930) is a mathematician, physicist, philosopher of science, metaphysician, Roman Catholic and member of the Traditionalist School. He has written extensively in the field of differential geometry, as a critic of ...

World Hypotheses ''World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence'', by Stephen C. Pepper (1942), presents four relatively adequate world hypotheses (or world views or conceptual systems) in terms of their root metaphors: formism (similarity), mechanism (machine), contextu ...

-- World

Z

Zeno of Elea

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Index of metaphysics articles Metaphysics *