1 What Is Metaphysics? Free Online FlashCards

What does metaphysics investigate?

Metaphysics investigates the most fundamental features of reality, including what exists and how things relate.

What is ontology?

Ontology is the study of being as such, traditionally a starting point for metaphysics.

How does metaphysics differ from the sciences?

Sciences investigate particular features of the world through observation and experiment; metaphysics asks broader questions about what their findings imply about reality.

What is the metaphysical problem of persistence?

It asks what makes something remain the same thing over time despite change, including what makes a person the same person years later.

What does the mind–body problem ask?

It asks whether minds are physical, nonphysical, or aspects of a more basic reality, and how thoughts and sensations relate to bodily events.

What questions does metaphysics ask about causation and laws?

Metaphysics asks what it means for one event to cause another and whether laws of nature are features of reality or descriptions of regular patterns.

What is the metaphysical question about free will?

It asks whether people can make genuinely free choices if their actions have causes or the future is determined by the past.

How do possibility and necessity differ?

Possibility concerns what could have happened; necessity concerns what must be true.

What does conceptual and logical analysis do?

It clarifies what a question means, distinguishes different claims, and checks whether proposed answers are consistent.

How do empirical and naturalistic approaches inform metaphysics?

They take scientific findings seriously when developing accounts of reality; evidence about brains and behavior, for example, may inform theories of mind.

How do rationalist or speculative approaches investigate reality?

They use reasoning about fundamental principles, possibility, and explanation to reach conclusions that may go beyond direct observation.

What is metaphysical realism?

Metaphysical realism is the view that reality exists largely independently of what people think or perceive.