metaphysicians
Being and existence scholars
Metaphysicians are philosophers who study metaphysics—the branch of philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality, existence, and being.
They grapple with questions about what exists, why anything exists at all, and what categories of things there are.
The metaphysicians debated whether abstract objects like numbers have real existence.
The term can also apply more loosely to anyone who speculates about matters beyond the physical or empirical.
Existing as something
- existenceState of being real
- essenceFundamental nature of something
- substancePhysical material with mass
- realityWhat actually exists
entities · properties · categories · identity · universals · particulars · phenomenon · modality
Greek philosopher, academy founder
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- DescartesCogito ergo sum's author
- KantGerman Enlightenment thinker
- HegelGerman absolute idealist philosopher
Leibniz · Spinoza · Aquinas · Heidegger · Schopenhauer · Avicenna · Whitehead · Bradley
Independent of experience
- knowledgeUnderstood facts and skills
- certaintyTotal absence of doubt
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- intuitionInstinctive immediate understanding
reason · justification · truth · belief · foundations · synthetic · analytic · necessity
Belief in noble principles
- materialismPrioritizing goods over spirit
- dualismPhilosophy of opposed pairs
- monismSingle-substance metaphysics
- realismAccepting things as they are
antirealism · rationalism · empiricism · phenomenology · existentialism · solipsism · determinism · positivism
Pursuit of divine union
- gnosisExperiential sacred understanding
- hermeticImpenetrably closed off
- theurgyRitual invoking gods
- neoplatonismRevival of Platonic metaphysics
illumination · contemplation · transcendence · unity · emanation · cosmogony · perennial philosophy · sacred
being
Existing as something
- existenceState of being real
- essenceFundamental nature of something
- substancePhysical material with mass
reality · entities · properties · categories · identity · universals · particulars · phenomenon · modality · potentiality
Plato
Greek philosopher, academy founder
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- DescartesCogito ergo sum's author
- KantGerman Enlightenment thinker
Hegel · Leibniz · Spinoza · Aquinas · Heidegger · Schopenhauer · Avicenna · Whitehead · Bradley · Duns Scotus
a priori
Independent of experience
- knowledgeUnderstood facts and skills
- certaintyTotal absence of doubt
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
intuition · reason · justification · truth · belief · foundations · synthetic · analytic · necessity · self-evidence
idealism
Belief in noble principles
- materialismPrioritizing goods over spirit
- dualismPhilosophy of opposed pairs
- monismSingle-substance metaphysics
realism · antirealism · rationalism · empiricism · phenomenology · existentialism · solipsism · determinism · positivism · nominalism
mysticism
Pursuit of divine union
neoplatonism · illumination · contemplation · transcendence · unity · emanation · cosmogony · perennial philosophy · sacred · initiation
- thinkersthinkers, thinker, philosophers, philosopher, Aristotle
- philosophersAristotle, Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes
- Medieval Scholarsscholastic, schoolman, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham
metaphysiciansempiricists
Philosophers favoring sensory knowledge
positivists · experimentalists · phenomenologists · pragmatists · naturalists
metaphysiciansphysicists
Scientists studying matter, energy
natural scientists · materialists · experimenters · natural philosophers · biologists