Metafisica

The word metafisica has a curious origin. It comes from the Greek ta meta ta physika, meaning "the [books] after the [books on] physics." This was not a title chosen by the philosopher Aristotle. Rather, it was coined by a later editor (Andronicus of Rhodes) who, when organizing Aristotle’s works, placed a collection of writings after his treatise on physics (Physica). The topics in these writings were about things that go beyond the physical world.

Thus, etymologically, metafisica means "beyond nature" or "after physics." But in practice, it is the study of:

Unlike science, which examines empirical, measurable phenomena, metafisica examines the underlying principles that make science possible. Metafisica

René Descartes (the father of modern philosophy) started from radical doubt. His famous Cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") is a metaphysical foundation: the certainty of the thinking self. He then famously divided reality into two distinct substances: res cogitans (thinking mind) and res extensa (extended matter). This is known as Cartesian dualism.

Immanuel Kant delivered a "Copernican Revolution" in metafisica. In his Critique of Pure Reason, he argued that we never know things as they are in themselves (noumena). We only know things as they appear to us (phenomena), structured by our innate categories of understanding (time, space, causality). He famously demolished traditional metaphysical proofs for God’s existence but rescued human freedom and morality by placing them in a "noumenal" realm beyond space and time. The word metafisica has a curious origin

In the early 20th century, logical positivists (e.g., Rudolf Carnap) declared metafisica meaningless. They argued that metaphysical statements (e.g., "The Absolute is perfect") could not be verified by sense experience and thus were neither true nor false but nonsense.

However, this rejection was short-lived. Martin Heidegger returned metafisica to the question of Being. Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialists created a "metaphysics of freedom," arguing that "existence precedes essence." Later, analytic philosophers like David Lewis and Saul Kripke revived serious metaphysical inquiry into possible worlds, essentialism, and the nature of necessity. René Descartes (the father of modern philosophy) started

Does every event have a cause? If so, how can there be free will? If not, how can we trust the laws of physics? The debate between determinism (every action is predetermined by prior causes) and libertarianism (free will is real) is a cornerstone of metafisica.

You don't need a PhD to engage with metafisica. In fact, you already ask metaphysical questions. Every child who asks, "Where did the first thing come from?" or "What happens after death?" is engaging in metaphysics.

Here is a simple exercise in metaphysical reasoning:

This process, called radical doubt, is the engine of metafisica.