Metaphysics

I'm hardly the expert on the matter (I still have a hell of a lot to read, my terminology is limited), but I think the term is applied to those who attempt to define "reality", discern between the abstract and the physical (often relating to God), etc.

EDIT: Found this: http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/N095

 

The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of reality. The kind of questions that would fall under the subject of metaphysics are usually things like "Does God exist?", "Does a non-corporeal reality exist or is reality simply reducible to the empirical?" or "Does the material world exist?" It should be noted that I am a consumate anti-metaphysician. Ask me why.

 

Are talking about the metaphysics pioneered by the pre-Socratic philosophers?

 

This is not even close to a complete answer but you know what, *insert expletive here* you! I'm too *goshdarn lazy* to type out a sustained argument...

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3710937&postcount=35

 

This is actually a pretty interesting topic, I'll do some research.

 

The Etymology of Metaphysics is "Beyond Physics"; this is, it focuses on anything that is beyond what we can touch, see, hear... (or rather, on anything that normally would escape our reason).

The way the word was born is not so poetic... A philosopher asking for some books that were on a shelf, behind the books of Physics... Not interesting, sorry!

 

all this for fluke? a riot
volcano in the loins of
a righteous slut!

Laugh.

 

Absolutely, if we talk about the western philosophy. They were the first who went from answering questions which werent asked by some sort of story (i.e. mythology) to trying to explain everything (or the cosmos, which is greek for "order") from a single principle (arche or archai). For some it was water, for some air or fire, or mixture of these elements, but my favourite is Anaximandros with his fragment on apeiron. Nietzsche wrote a beautiful book about the pre-socratics, he was a great admirer of them.

 

There are different kinds of metaphysics? If so, that explains my confusion.

 

Well, (if you reffered to my post) not really, but the object of metaphysics evolved with philosophy itself, different stress was laid on different things in different times, , so it may seem that there are more kinds of metaphysics. Also, there is the difference between western and eastern philosophy.

 

When I first heard the word metaphysics, it was used in describing things such as space travel, etc. When I went to the bookstore to look for some books on metaphysics, all I found in that section were religious/spiritualistic type of books. This is what confused me on the meaning of metaphysics and is why I thought there may have been different types.