Metaphysics
(Met`a*phys"ics) n. [Gr. after those things which relate to external nature, after physics, fr.
beyond, after + relating to external nature, natural, physical, fr. nature: cf. F. métaphysique. See Physics.
The term was first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that part of his writings which came
after, or followed, the part which treated of physics.]
1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal being; ontology; also, the science of being, with
reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or
concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of
every kind of being; philosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.
Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special. General metaphysics is the science of all being
as being. Special metaphysics is the science of one kind of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of
morals, or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge
of which is altogether independent of experience, would constitute the science of metaphysics.
Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics, as being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath
that for title; but it is in another sense: for there it signifieth as much as "books written or placed after
his natural philosophy." But the schools take them for "books of supernatural philosophy;" for the word
metaphysic will bear both these senses.
Hobbes.
Now the science conversant about all such inferences of unknown being from its known manifestations,
is called ontology, or metaphysics proper.
Sir W. Hamilton.
Metaphysics are [is] the science which determines what can and what can not be known of being, and
the laws of being, a priori.
Coleridge. 2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology.
Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively
occupied with mind.
Sir W. Hamilton.
Whether, after all,
A larger metaphysics might not help
Our physics.
Mrs. Browning. Metaphysis
(||Me*taph"y*sis) n. [NL., fr. Gr. after + nature.] Change of form; transformation.
Metaplasm
(Met"a*plasm) n. [L. metaplasmus, Gr. beyond, over + to mold: cf. F. métaplasme.] (Gram.)
A change in the letters or syllables of a word.
Metaplast
(Met"a*plast) n. [See Metaplasm.] (Gram.) A word having more than one form of the root.
Metapode
(Met"a*pode) n. [NL. metapodium, from Gr. behind + dim. of poy`s, podo`s, foot.] (Zoöl.)
The posterior division of the foot in the Gastropoda and Pteropoda.
Metapodial
(Met`a*po"di*al) a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the metapodialia, or to the parts of the limbs
to which they belong.
Metapodiale
(||Met`a*po`di*a"le) n.; pl. Metapodialia [NL. See Metapode.] (Anat.) One of the bones
of either the metacarpus or metatarsus.
Metapodium
(||Met`a*po"di*um) n.; pl. Metapodia [NL.] (Zoöl.) Same as Metapode.
Metapophysis
(||Met`a*poph"y*sis) n.; pl. Metapophyses [NL. See Meta-, and Apophysis.] (Anat.)
A tubercle projecting from the anterior articular processes of some vertebræ; a mammillary process.
Metapterygium
(||Me*tap`te*ryg"i*um) n. [NL., fr. Gr. after + fin.] (Anat.) The posterior of the three
principal basal cartilages in the fins of fishes. — Me*tap`ter*yg"i*al a.
