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What is the difference between philosophy and metaphysics?

philosophy | metaphysics |

In uncountable terms the difference between philosophy and metaphysics

is that philosophy is an academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism while metaphysics is displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.

In countable terms the difference between philosophy and metaphysics

is that philosophy is a general principle (usually moral) while metaphysics is plural of countable senses of metaphysic.

As nouns the difference between philosophy and metaphysics

is that philosophy is the love of wisdom while metaphysics is 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).

As a verb philosophy

is to philosophize.

philosophy

Alternative forms

* philosophie (obsolete) * phylosophie (obsolete) * phylosophy (nonstandard)

Noun

  • (uncountable, originally) The love of wisdom.
  • (uncountable) An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism.
  • * 1661 , , The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond
  • During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy , he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant
  • (countable) A comprehensive system of belief.
  • (countable) A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.
  • (countable) A general principle (usually moral).
  • (archaic) A broader branch of (non-applied) science.
  • Meronyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * analytic philosophy * antiphilosophy * continental philosophy * personal philosophy * philosophize * philosophy of mind

    Verb

  • To philosophize.
  • *, II.12:
  • Plato hath (in my seeming) loved this manner of Philosophying , Dialogue wise in good earnest, that therby he might more decently place in sundry mouthes the diversity and variation of his owne conceits.

    See also

    * * ideology

    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