 |
|
|
ACADEMIC METAPHYSICS The term metaphysics originally referred to the writings of Aristotle that came after his writings on physics, as established by Andronicus of Rhodes about three centuries after Aristotle's death. Traditionally, metaphysics has referred to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible. It seeks a description so basic, so essentially simple, so all-inclusive that it applies to everything, whether divine or human or anything else. It attempts to tell what anything must be like in order to be at all. To call one a metaphysician in this traditional, philosophical sense indicates nothing more than his or her interest in attempting to discover what underlies everything. Old materialists, who said that there is nothing but matter in motion, and current naturalists, who say that everything is made of lifeless, non-experiencing energy, are just as much to be classified as metaphysicians as are idealists, who maintain that there is nothing but ideas, or mind, or spirit. Some define metaphysics as the philosophy of cause. Idealists assert what materialists deny. Dualists say that mind and matter are equally real, while neutral monists claim that there is a neutral reality that can appear as either mind or matter. Philosophers generally are content to divide reality into two halves, mind and matter and do not emphasize such distinctions within the mind half as spirit and soul. |
POPULAR METAPHYSICS A popular and commonly employed secondary usage of the term metaphysics includes a wide range of controversial phenomena believed by many people to exist beyond the physical. Popular metaphysics relates to two traditionally contrasted, if not completely separable, areas, (1) mysticism, referring to experiences of unity with the ultimate, often interpreted as God, and (2) occultism, referring to the extension of knowing (extrasensory perception, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, retrocognition, and mediumship) and doing (psychokinesis) beyond the usually recognized fields of human activity. The academic study of the occult (literally hidden) has been known as psychical research and, more recently, parapsychology. Both New Age and other modern religions emphasize mysticism and its practical, pragmatic application in daily living, but New Thought discourages involvement in psychic matters.. The terms metaphysics and metaphysical in a popular sense have been used in connection with New Thought, Christian Science, Theosophy and Spiritualism as well as in the New Age Movement. See: Divination, Mediums,
|