Portal:Metaphysics

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Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. Its name derives from the Greek words μετά (metá) (meaning "above" or "beyond") and φυσικά (physiká) (meaning "above or beyond physics"), "physics" referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity. Metaphysics addresses questions that have existed for as long as the human race - many still with no definitive answer. Examples are:

• What is the meaning of life?
• What is the nature of reality?
• What is humanity's place in the universe?
• Does the world exist outside the mind?
• What is the nature of objects, events, places?

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Selected article

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment.

The concept of experience generally refers to know-how or procedural knowledge, rather than propositional knowledge. Philosophers dub knowledge based on experience "empirical knowledge" or "a posteriori knowledge".

The interrogation of experience has a long tradition in continental philosophy. Experience is an important aspect of the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. The German term Erfahrung, often translated into English as "experience" has a slightly different implication, connoting the coherency of life's experiences.

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Selected biography

Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 Akron, Ohio – December 25, 2000) (known to intimates as "Van"), was an American analytic philosopher and logician. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was affiliated in some way with Harvard University, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as an emeritus elder statesman who published or revised seven books in retirement. He filled the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard, 1956-78. Quine falls squarely into the analytic philosophy tradition while also being the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis. His major writings include "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (1951), which attacked the distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions and advocated a form of semantic holism, and Word and Object (1960) which further developed these positions and introduced the notorious indeterminacy of translation thesis.

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Categories

▼ Metaphysics

► Metaphysicians

► Concepts in metaphysics

► Cosmology

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► Metaphysics literature

► Metaphysics of mind

► Metaphysics of science

► Metaphysics portal

► Ontology

► Philosophy of time

► Teleology

► Metaphysics writers

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Did you know?

• ... that spiritualism is a dualist metaphysical theory?
• ... that ideas and concepts are considered to be either abstract objects or mental representations?
• ... that ontology is basically an attempt to create a list of everything exists fundamentally?
• ... that your metaphysical view will influence your theory of mind?

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Requested articles: Pluralistic idealism · Downward causation · Ontological priority

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