English-Thai Dictionary
metaphysics
N ศาสตร์ ความรู้ ที่ เกี่ยวกับ ปรากฏการณ์ ทางจิต สาขา ปรัชญา เกี่ยวกับ ความจริง ทางธรรมชาติ ที่ เข้าใจ ได้ ยาก
metaphysics
N อภิปรัชญา epistemology ontology cosmology ar-pi-pai
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
METAPHYSICS
n.s as z. [Gr. after, and physics. It is said that this name was given to the science by Aristotle or his followers, who considered the science of natural bodies, physics, as the first in the order of studies, and the science of mind or intelligence to be the second. ] The science of the principles and causes of all things existing; hence, the science of mind or intelligence. This science comprehends ontology, or the science which treats of the nature, essence, and qualities or attributes of being; cosmology, the science of the world, which treats of the nature and laws of matter and of motion; anthroposophy, which treats of the power of man, and the motions by which life is produced; psychology, which treats of the intellectual soul; pneumatology, or the science of spirits or angels, etc. Metaphysical theology, called by Leibnitz and others theodicy, treats of the existence of God, his essence and attributes. These divisions of the science of metaphysics, which prevailed in the ancient schools, are now not much regarded. The natural division of things that exist is into body and mind, things material and immaterial. The former belong to physics, and the latter to the science of metaphysics.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
METAPHYSICS
Met `a *phys "ics, n. Etym: [Gr. métaphysique. See Physics. The term was first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that part of his writings which came after, or followed, the part which treated of physics. ]
1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal being; ontology; also, the science of being, with reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being; phylosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.
Note: Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special. General metaphysics is the science of all being as being. Special metaphysics is the science of one kind of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of morals, or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge of which is altogether independent of experience, would constitute the science of metaphysics. Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics, as being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath that for title; but it is in another sense: for there it signifieth as much as "books written or placed after his natural philosophy. " But the schools take them for "books of supernatural philosophy; " for the word metaphysic will bear both these senses. Hobbes. Now the science conversant about all such inferences of unknown being from its known manifestations, is called ontology, or metaphysics proper. Sir W. Hamilton. Metaphysics are [is ] the science which determines what can and what can not be known of being, and the laws of being, a priori. Coleridge.
2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology. Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind. Sir W.Hamilton. Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not help Our physics. Mrs. Browning.
New American Oxford Dictionary
metaphysics
met a phys ics |ˌmetəˈfiziks ˈˌmɛdəˈˌfɪzɪks | ▶plural noun [ usu. treated as sing. ] the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space. • abstract theory or talk with no basis in reality: his concept of society as an organic entity is, for market liberals, simply metaphysics. Metaphysics has two main strands: that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued by Plato ), and that which holds that objects of experience constitute the only reality (as argued by Kant, the logical positivists, and Hume ). Metaphysics has also concerned itself with a discussion of whether what exists is made of one substance or many, and whether what exists is inevitable or driven by chance. DERIVATIVES met a phy si cian |-fəˈziSHən |noun ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: representing medieval Latin metaphysica (neuter plural ), based on Greek ta meta ta phusika ‘the things after the Physics, ’ referring to the sequence of Aristotle's works: the title came to denote the branch of study treated in the books, later interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural. ’
Oxford Dictionary
metaphysics
meta |phys ¦ics |mɛtəˈfɪzɪks | ▶plural noun [ usu. treated as sing. ] the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space. • abstract theory with no basis in reality: his concept of society as an organic entity is, for market liberals, simply metaphysics. Metaphysics has two main strands: that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued by Plato ), and that which holds that objects of experience constitute the only reality (as argued by Kant, the logical positivists, and Hume ). DERIVATIVES metaphysician |-ˈzɪʃ (ə )n |noun ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: representing medieval Latin metaphysica (neuter plural ), based on Greek ta meta ta phusika ‘the things after the Physics ’, referring to the sequence of Aristotle's works: the title came to denote the branch of study treated in the books, later interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural ’.
Sanseido Wisdom Dictionary
metaphysics
met a phys ics /mètəfɪ́zɪks /名詞 U 1 形而上 （けいじじよう ）学 .2 机上の空論 ; 抽象的議論 .
The Wordsmith Dictionary