Metaphysics
The fundamental philosophical discipline of ultimate questions — God, freedom, the soul, the world as a whole. Kant examines whether it can ever become a science.
Metaphysics probably owes its name to the arrangement of Aristotle's works: Andronicus of Rhodes is said to have placed the relevant writings after the physics (“ta meta ta physika”). In substance it asks about what underlies all experience: being, God, the immortal soul, the freedom of the will, the world as a whole.
Kant counts as a central critic of metaphysics — yet he wanted to rescue it, not abolish it: metaphysical questioning is for him an ineradicable need of reason. But before reason asserts answers, it must critically examine its own capacity — which is exactly what the “Critique of Pure Reason” undertakes.
Where it appears
- Knowledge — The Copernican revolution
- Life — The long road to the professorship
- Timeline
- Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
- Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals — Structure & key ideas
- Critique of Practical Reason — Legacy & relevance today
- Critique of Pure Reason — Genesis & context
- FAQ
- Hope
- Home — Kant in five minutes
- Being human
- Knowing
Source: Wikipedia: Metaphysics