Aristotle's Metaphysics { The Father of Metaphysics }

The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά (metá, "beyond", "upon" or "after") and φυσικά (physiká, "physics"). It was first used as the title for several of Aristotle's works, because they were usually anthologized after the works on physics in complete editions. The prefix meta- ("beyond") indicates that these works come "after" the chapters on physics. However, Aristotle himself did not call the subject of these books "Metaphysics": he referred to it as "first philosophy." The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to have placed the books on first philosophy right after another work, Physics, and called them τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ βιβλία (ta meta ta physika biblia) or "the books that come after the [books on] physics". This was misread by Latin scholiasts, who thought it meant "the science of what is beyond the physical". However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic reasons for its appropriateness. For instance, it was understood to mean "the science of the world beyond nature" (physis in Greek), that is, the science of the immaterial. Again, it was understood to refer to the chronological or pedagogical order among our philosophical studies, so that the "metaphysical sciences" would mean "those that we study after having mastered the sciences that deal with the physical world" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "In Lib, Boeth. de Trin.", V, 1).

There is a widespread use of the term in current popular literature which replicates this error, i.e. that metaphysical means spiritual non-physical: thus, "metaphysical healing" means healing by means of remedies that are not physical.




Man, Universe and God: Religion, philosophy, metaphysics and science

in Spirituality


By Mardini



Everyone has his, or her, own convictions about life, the universe, being and God. Religion asserts God’s indispensability for the presence of the universe and life. Philosophy searches for truth, and ultimate truth and it purports to demonstrate the relation ship between three enigmas: the universe, man and God.

It attempts to establish a comprehensive perspective for the three such as that God has created the universe and created man in order to look into the universe and find God. Metaphysics, on the other hand searches for reality and ultimate reality at that. Its subject matter is first principles and first causes for the universe and life manifestations.

Real reality for the metaphysics does not lie in the physical, sensible aspect of the universe but in the intelligible aspect that cannot be reached except through thought and spirit. Man in his totality is engaged to find answers to fundamental questions about the underlying principles of the universe in its presence, origin and finality, It purports to find out the reality behind existence in all its aspects.

Life and death, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hatred, value and morality are the domains of metaphysics, as much as religion and philosophy, but metaphysics looks for the reality in these and behind these phenomena. Religion invites humans to think and consider the universe as the creation of God and invites humans to acknowledge God, love Him, serve Him and worship Him.

God is is the thesis of religion. Philosophy wonders following the urge for fining out truth in man. What represents the truth and is the truth are the domains of philosophy. Thus philosophy is a personal outlook while religion is a general communal outlook. Metaphysics, searching for reality studies religion and consider its premises and presumptions and attempts to disclose the real principles in religion and also in philosophy.

Metaphysics goes beyond religion to examine its premises and conclusions. It purports to uncover the principles of the universe and life in religious thought as well as in philosophical thought.

Thus for example religion prescribes belief in God and His worship, while philosophy attempts to find out the truth in religious thought and whether there is or not a God that has created the universe, life and its manifestations and the relationship between man and the universe, with or without God. Metaphysics attempts to find out the reality of the religious disposition and the reality of philosophical thought.

If God has created the universe then, according to religion, philosophy and metaphysics, He is worthy of worship, love and service. While religion asserts this, philosophy looks into its truth and metaphysics into its reality. While religion asserts God as creator and disposer of the universe and man, philosophy accepts or rejects the idea of God and metaphysics looks into the reality of sensible to search and establish the reality of the intelligible.

God is, in religion. He might be in philosophy and He is to be discovered in metaphysics.

While religion invites to believe or disbelieve in God with all the consequences that stems from this alternative, philosophy aspires to find a rational disposition for God or a rational to deny God. While science concentrates of the sensible-physical and rejects the metaphysical, metaphysics considers the sensible-physical in the light of the intelligible and spires to uncover the reality of the principles in the intelligible. The first principle in metaphysics is God. He is the first cause and the creator of the universe. He is ultimate good. He alone is worthy of thinking and contemplation. He Is Reality.

The common difficulty shared by religion, philosophy and metaphysics lies in the attempt to resolve the enigmatic problematic of the three principle subjects of meditation namely that of the universe, of man and that of God.

Not to panic, every one of us attempts to think and reflect and concludes his, or her, personal conviction with regard to the universe, man and God. The key in all these aspects is lack of proof but the proclamations by any perspective are founded on the strong plausibility that there is a need for a God cause and creator, in opposition and comparison to the absence of the universe and man ,which is not the case, and thus man recoils upon his own convictions.

Science does not help, rather the contrary it confirms dogmatically a notion limited only to the sensible, neglecting the intelligible, unless our convictions are not blinded and limited only to the physical aspect but transcends to the metaphysical level, fundamental of the real.