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Metaphysics

 

 

Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Liebniz, Kant

 

Some people argue that the term ‘metaphysics’ comes simply from the title of a work of Aristole. His book subsequent to the physics…the metaphysics…simply meaning beyond, after, or above the physics. It has however come to mean also, foundational or ‘first philosophy’, which in the case of Aristotle dealt with the central question of being – almost identical with the idea of substance. In Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy’ he structures the whole of philosophy like atree, where the roots are metaphysics, the trunk represents physics with its branches representing the other sciences. For Liebniz too, the principles of mechanics &c flow from metaphyscial prinicples.

 

 

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Chris Thornhills paper

 

Metaphysics: multiple meanings

(discussion on different ways metaphysics can be understood i.e. as designation of nature of reality, or posting of something beyond reality)

 

Resources

 

Politics and metaphysics – a problem in German philosophy -  Chris Thornhill (PDF)

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