Metaphysics as a Philosophy;What it is,its supporters and critics
Metaphysics is one of the branches that are there in philosophy. It is a Greek terminology that is derived from two words; meta and physics. Meta, in this case, would mean upon, after or beyond. 'After' meaning the works come after the chapters that are there in physics. It can as well be termed as the first philosophy, the foundation of philosophy or the wisdom.
Well, you can not talk about metaphysics without Aristotle, can you? He terms metaphysics as a subject that would deal with the first causes and principle of things. Metaphysics is basically a branch that deals with nature of existence, beings, and the world; what exists and how does it look like. Andronicus of Rhodes, an editor of Aristotle's ideas placed the books of the first philosophy after another work, Physics and termed the work as 'the books of physics.'
The difference between science and philosophy is that science is taken as empirical science or even as non-empirical science. In this case, one has to come up with explanations that would make predictions which are tested by experiments. This is not a requirement in metaphysics as philosophical statements are reduced to its proposition or concept. It is a philosophical science that deals with concepts such as being when it is in its simplest form.
Metaphysical sciences mean' what is studied after mastering science that deals with the physical world.
Metaphysics as philosophy has two branches, cosmology and also ontology and anyone who studies metaphysics is known as a metaphysician. Cosmology is a metaphysical study that involves origin and the nature of the universe. Ontology deals with the existence of categories of beings and how they usually go about and relate to one another. Being in this case, exists independent of anyone who observes; the objects just exists in the mind of an observer.
There are various subjects that are related to metaphysics. These would include religion, meditation, yoga, astrology, positive thinking, mysticism, transcendentalism, reincarnation, Jungian psychology, parapsychology, life and death, transpersonal and theocentric, ESP among many other interesting subjects to be informed about.
Metaphysics explains more of what there is in science and physics. In Physics subject, mentioning the existence of entities like forces, charges, mass, atoms, and particles is the end of the theory of science. Metaphysics now comes in and explains what these entities mean as a human concept. In metaphysics, these entities are questioned.
Examples would be, Do the theories that exist in Physics require space and time, properties, and objects? Is it possible to express them in properties or objects only? Do they retain their own identities with time or at some point, they change? and when they really change, are they the same objects?
Alexandre in his book 'Metaphysics and Measurement' says that it is not following the experiment but outstripping it so that there is progress in scientific mind.
On the other hand, Imre Lakatos points out that scientific theories have metaphysical essential for the generation of hypotheses as well as theoretical assumptions. Lakatos claims that scientific change is connected to metaphysical revolutions.
David Hull argued that changes in the ontological status of species are center of biological thinking from Aristotle by Cuvier, Darwin, and Lamarck. In Darwin's case, his ignorance of metaphysics actually made it difficult for him to have a response to critics as he could not grasp the difference between metaphysical views and his views.
In Chemistry as a subject, Gilbert Newton Lewis addresses nature of motion. He says that electrons do not move as there are no properties of motion.
Well, in the world of philosophy there are controversial here and there. While others strongly believe that metaphysics is legitimate, scientists and logical positivists think of it as meaningless and illegitimate. An example would be David Hume in the eighteen century. He argued out that all knowledge involves just matters of facts or mathematics.
The conclusion to his inquiry concerning human understanding points out to the fact that metaphysics is nothing but an illusion and it should be completely committed to flames. He says that it has no reasoning when it comes to number or quantity. He also goes ahead to claim that it has no experimental reasoning to matters of existence and facts. Amie Thomasson argues that many of metaphysical questions can as well be dissolved in accordance with the way words are used.
Some traditions around the world also acknowledge and incorporate metaphysics. For example among the Buddhist. Their traditions have proposed various kinds of questions that are based on teachings of Buddha in the Buddhist texts that existed in the early ages. Buddha, in this case, focuses on questions that are based on spiritual and ethical training.
The teachings go ahead to dismiss some metaphysical questions as automatically unhelpful and that they should be set aside. Among the Hindu traditions, there is a relation between their beliefs and metaphysics. There exist Samkhya and Yoga which is practiced and upheld in various schools.Yoga accepts a personal, inactive deity or god.
Religion, on the other hand, is not related to metaphysics as it is based on a set of followed convictions which predicts the world and explains the occurrence of various phenomena. The overall integrity of various religions is retained to a certain extent. In Greek Mythology, phenomena that are mysterious are said to be caused by different gods.
In this case, a person claiming that the occurrence of these mysterious phenomena is caused by one god will not be accepted.Going ahead to do that would be introducing a whole new religion that differs from Greek mythology. When it comes to the belief of the existence of a supernatural, there is always controversial between atheists and theists over metaphysics.They disagree with nature of reality as well as the existence of a supernatural being.
Metaphysics as a branch of philosophy is a subject that has been debated by many. Some of the philosophers support it, others partially support it while still others completely reject and dismiss it even until today. With all that said, there is much to talk about in metaphysics and still more to explore by philosophers. You can not really pre-empty what is there in metaphysics. The more the correctness of people's metaphysical worldview, the more we are able to understand and comprehend the world and act accordingly.
Reference:
Hull, David (1967).'The metaphysics of evolution.'British journal of the history of science.
Harris, E.E.The restitution of metaphysics.New York; humanity books.
Lakatos, Imre(1970) 'science of reason/religion.'