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Alchemy vs Metaphysics - What's the difference?

alchemy | metaphysics |

In uncountable terms the difference between alchemy and metaphysics

is that alchemy is the ancient search for a universal panacea, and of the philosopher's stone, that eventually developed into chemistry while metaphysics is displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.

In countable terms the difference between alchemy and metaphysics

is that alchemy is the causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation while metaphysics is plural of countable senses of metaphysic.

alchemy

English

(wikipedia alchemy)

Noun

  • (label) The ancient search for a universal panacea, and of the philosopher's stone, that eventually developed into chemistry.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy .}}
  • (label) The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.
  • Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.

    • Derived terms

    * alchemical * alchemise and alchemize * alchemist * alchemistic * alchemistical

    See also

    * elixir of life * philosophers' stone

    References

    * *

    metaphysics

    English

    (wikipedia metaphysics)

    Noun

  • (philosophy, uncountable) The branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being (ens in quantum ens ).
    • Philosophers sometimes say that metaphysics is the study of the ultimate nature of the universe.
  • (philosophy, countable) The view or theory of a particular philosopher or school of thinkers concerning the first principles which describe or explain all that is.
    • The metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas holds that all real beings have both essence and existence.
    In Aristotelian metaphysics physical objects have both form and matter.
    In his ''Pensées'', Pascal mentioned some first principles recognized within his metaphysics : space, time, motion, and number.
  • (uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) Any fundamental principles or rules.
  • * 1990 Jan. 1, Lance Morrow, " Gorbachev: The Unlikely Patron of Change," Time :
    • The metaphysics of global power has changed. Markets are now more valuable than territory.
  • (uncountable) The study of a supersensual realm or of phenomena which transcend the physical world.
    • I have a collection of books on metaphysics , covering astral projection, reincarnation, and communication with spirits.
  • (uncountable) Displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.
    • This political polemic strikes me as a protracted piece of overwrought, fog shrouded metaphysics !
  • (countable) Plural of countable senses of metaphysic.

    • Meronyms

    * ontology

    Derived terms

    * metaphysical * metaphysician * metaphysicist

    Related terms

    * physics