Metaphysics

1. Metaphysics of philosophy

Philosophy as metaphysics has its origin in the history of philosophy. When philosophy as a reflection on knowledge became a form of knowledge in ancient Greece, the philosophy formed was determined by its way of thinking and its formal understanding of existence as existence---the purpose of pursuing objective basic existence independent of human beings. This led to the continuous in-depth study of the form of existence. Although Plato once warned that we should pay attention to the role of ideas, his student Aristotle still attributed existence to form and thus concentrated philosophy on the culmination of formalization, establishing a lasting The ancient Greek philosophical system that influenced the process of Western philosophy. This idea of ??formalizing existence has always promoted the study of Western philosophy until contemporary Western philosophy. Formalizing existence must distinguish spirit from it as an independent form. This idea of ??dualism implicit in Aristotle has not yet been made clear. After realizing the denial of God in the Renaissance, Descartes made the distinction between existence and thinking. After making a clear binary separation, the relationship between existence and thinking began in the formal Western philosophy of Aristotle. In order to discover the forms of existence and thinking and strive to make them unified, it has become the Western philosopher Qianqiu. A goal that EMI tirelessly pursues.

When the Renaissance produced rationalist and positivist philosophy, metaphysics began to be used as a philosophical form to distinguish science. From then on, philosophy separated from the encyclopedic philosophy of ancient Greece and became metaphysics, and physics also separated from this encyclopedic philosophy and became natural science---with the formal philosophy of existence Continuous formalization makes the form of natural science independent from philosophy. When natural science continues to progress, so that when natural science succeeds in the Newtonian physics system and later transforms the technical means of conducting physical experiments into social productive forces, at this time, along with the liberation of productive forces comes a wealth of Material interests gave rise to the idea of ??scientism. On the one hand, scientific values ????start to oppose the metaphysical way of thinking. On the other hand, the ontological difficulty of the formalized autonomy of existence as existence puts metaphysics into doubt. Since then, the trend of philosophical thoughts that reject metaphysics and the resulting continuous changes in the form of metaphysics have begun in the history of philosophy. As we can see, Descartes---Bacon created it against Aristotle's ontological metaphysics. Hegel opposed the metaphysics of knowledge based on Kant's criticism of knowledge and created dialectical metaphysics. Contemporary scientific materialism and positivism oppose all metaphysics. This shows that metaphysics is constantly being replaced by new metaphysical forms, and old metaphysics is replaced by new metaphysics. They are changing metaphysical forms, but they cannot change their own metaphysical essence.

The history of Western philosophy shows that when it is possible to understand the existence of the world through empirical methods, the difference between empirical content and empirical form leads to the formalization of (knowledge) existence and the formalization of the form of existence. transformation, Aristotle made corresponding formal distinctions in philosophy, giving rise to the metaphysical philosophical form, that is, the Western philosophical tradition of metaphysics that formalizes existence. After Aristotle called the study of what happens in the forms of existence physics, and the study of the forms of existence itself physics, his method of separating physics and philosophy led to The form of metaphysics corresponds to the formalization of physics and thus becomes an independent knowledge system. The formal correspondence between metaphysics and physics enables metaphysics to continuously accept criticism from physics, and also enables physics to continuously accept reflection on metaphysics. , the result of the interaction between metaphysics and physics under this correspondence, makes metaphysics and physics constantly perfect in form. As a reflection on the possibility of the form of metaphysical knowledge, it has led to the continuous changes in the form and content of metaphysics. When constantly reflecting on physics and trying to prove the confirmation of existence by metaphysics to prove the inevitability of the existence of metaphysics, the content of physics itself has become impossible. The metaphysical nature of disengagement. Aristotle believed: "There is a science that studies what is as it is, and what is because of the endowments of nature. This is different from any so-called special science; none of those special sciences studies generally The reason why reality is reality is that they cut off a section of reality and study the quality of this section; for example, mathematics is doing this. Now because we are looking for the basic principles of the highest cause, clearly, these must be. Things that are endowed with nature. If those who search for the elements of existing things are also searching for fundamental principles, these elements must be the elements that make them what they are, not the elements from which they derive their properties. Recognize clearly that the first reason should also be the reason why what is true is what is true” (Aristotle: Metaphysics, first edition of The Commercial Press, December 1959, page 56). There are other different translations of this discussion: 1. "There is a science that specializes in the study of existence itself and the attributes that existence possesses through its own nature" ("Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy" Commercial Press, December 1, 1961 Second edition, page 234). 2. "Metaphysics is a discipline that studies existence as existence and the attributes that belong to existence according to its nature" ("Natural Philosophy", China Social Sciences Press, December 1994, first edition, page 61).

Obviously, existence as existence and the attributes of existence are questions that all philosophy must answer. However, although Western philosophy has clearly raised this question in the stage of ancient Greek philosophy, as we can see, Western philosophy’s answers to these questions end in the indeterminacy of the form of existence, from the existence of form to existence. The symmetry of form and the existence of form to the form of existence are broken, which brings the process of Western philosophy to an end.

After Western philosophy has made continuous efforts to formalize existence into existence and successfully solved the interrelationship between existence and its manifestation as form and form, and considered it as science, it has not understood why existence becomes form. The scientific nature of the relationship between form and form, especially the philosophical problems that arise when existence does not take form as existence, has left Western philosophy at a loss.

This illustrates an essential philosophical issue, what is the ontological relationship between the nature of existence, that is, the ontology of existence, and human understanding, and how human beings can comprehensively and correctly understand existence. This It is our reflection on the formal end of existence based on Western metaphysics.

The results of reflection show that: due to the formalization of the understanding of time and space, the formalization of time and space is improved, and the free space and time becomes the generative relationship of cognition and forms the formal relationship of existence. This is Western metaphysics. Methods and results. Therefore, different understandings of time and space are the reasons for different metaphysics. Taking time and space as the starting point of consciousness, formalizing the image of existence, tracing the basic nature of the form of existence, using the continuous mathematical division of forms as the basis to carry out formal metaphysical logical division of existence and forming the space-time logical relationship between forms. This It is the basic method of thinking in Western philosophy.

The ideal of natural science lies in the continuous improvement of the formalization of existence and the completion of self-consistent logical proof of the form (the continuous improvement of mathematics brought by formalization and the continuous improvement of mathematical evidence) Formalization process)---it is our duty to seek the limits of formalization. When the formalization of metaphysics and the science resulting from the formalization handed over the task of proving the formalization to science, the success of science in formalizing all parts of existence made science attempt to formalize its own metaphysics. Fundamental rejection, thus completely replacing metaphysics, not only caused Western philosophy to reject metaphysics in modern times, but also, out of envy of science's achievements in the formalization of existence, philosophy began to act as a defender of science. This is manifested in the loss of philosophy and related issues of lost philosophy. I have demonstrated this in the article "The Loss of Philosophy and the Ecological Crisis" and will not discuss it further here. (See "Theoretical Research on Ecological Environment Protection and Natural Resources Management" Heilongjiang Science Press, January 1995, first edition, page 36).

The formalization of existence is the unified result of the existence of the subject's form. Recognizing the existence form of the subject is the basic point for confirming the subject's existence. From this point of view, Western philosophy has introduced philosophy into the formalized form since ancient Greece. track. Due to the formalization of the ontology of existence, time and space enter the form of existence, and the form of time and space supports the form of existence, making the form of existence follow the limit of the main form of the time and space form, and the form of existence and the form of the subject are both An unprecedented dilemma has arisen. Time and space are the generated forms of human cognition. The basic nature of the generated forms is to use time and space as the forms to grasp existence. That is to say, the existence experienced by humans is the existence of time and space, and existence can only be understood on the premise of form. , when existence cannot be expressed in the form of existence in the way of time and space, the existence of metaphysical time and space transformation of the time and space way of human beings grasping existence is the ultimate result of the metaphysical philosophy that mankind will complete.

So, the formalization of existence is a form that can complete the formalization of time and space. The end of formalization will eventually bring the end of formal scientific understanding, and the formality indicated by space and time will continue to evolve in time and space. Through the metaphysical reduction of mode and the grasp of the way of existence in the way of time and space, human beings can finally complete the understanding of existence, and enable human beings as the subject of existence to complete the self-made and self-free space-time form in the self-way of time and space. Convert.

2. The misunderstanding of anti-metaphysics

Western philosophy’s criticism and rejection of metaphysics, whether in modern philosophy or contemporary philosophy, is to distinguish the difference between philosophical research and scientific research and to distinguish the difference between philosophical research and scientific research. The change of outlook and the difference in starting point of philosophy serve as a method of philosophical process. Seen in its anti-metaphysical form, its essence is simply a critique between different forms of philosophy in order to perfect the formalization of philosophy and make it self-consistent. Therefore, in the history of Western philosophy, there are so-called different metaphysical forms and the criticisms between them. For example: when the reliability of knowledge becomes a reflection on Aristotle's ontology through the epistemology of Descartes, Hume, and Kant, what is explained is the relationship between the in-itself and for-itself of form. The difficulty in the identity of objectivity and formal subjectivity separated the duality of formal for-itself and in-itself, and the ontology of formal existence was replaced by the conclusion that it was impossible to recognize. In the long philosophy from Plato to Kant After thinking about it, the Idea has not been replaced by any for-itself proof of formal theory. The unknowability of the thing in itself and the metaphysical ideal of the Idea are in Kant's "Critique". Hegel uses the term subject for the in-itself and for-itself of form. The dialectics of for-itself unifies and completes the highest formalized metaphysics of Western philosophy.

In order to break through the formal ontological difficulties of philosophy, Hegel based on Kant's criticism of understanding and believed that the abstract method of metaphysics of understanding makes it an isolated, static and therefore limited method. Unlike Kant who attributes the finitude of intelligence to the necessity of subjective thinking, Hegel believes that its finitude is formed by the abstract identity of the nature of intelligence itself. Hegel attempts to use the absolute idea (absolute spirit) to internalize The dialectical development relationship of concrete identity reaches ontology. Although it has made a breakthrough in overcoming the formalization of existence in Western philosophy, because the deductive relationship of dialectics cannot be completely separated from the formal basis of conceptual categories, dialectics cannot ultimately complete the relationship between world existence and The identity of the absolute idea - solving the ontological problem that the formalization of world existence and the absolute idea cannot be formalized and therefore cannot be identical, puts his absolute idea and Kant's thing-in-itself into the same ontological dilemma. This shows that since Hegel has not yet made a breakthrough in the formal Western philosophical tradition, it is actually impossible to break through the ontology of the identity of the form of thinking and the form of existence in the formal way of thinking that he inherited and used. Thought is his ideal and that of all Western philosophers. Due to the destruction of the ideal of identity, his metaphysical ideal was disintegrated by his descendant philosophers, thus beginning the further decomposition of formalization in Western philosophy. When the formalization of philosophy is determined by the philosophical unity of the deconstruction of the form of existence and the formal thinking of science, it actually makes the formalization of philosophy inseparable from the scientific form. Philosophy will inevitably become a vassal of science and even cause philosophy to decline to the point of being lost. its own form.

The so-called anti-metaphysics in contemporary Chinese philosophy is different from Western philosophy. The implication is that the role of science will replace metaphysics. The expressions of its classic writers only make dialectics the (ontology) of all sciences. (On) method, therefore criticizing so-called metaphysics, the purpose of which is to replace philosophy with the scientific ontology of dialectics. In Lenin's case, this scientific outlook, which had taken off the cloak of philosophy, was re-clothed in the cloak of philosophy. Therefore, in their expressions, they only replace the metaphysical form under the garb of philosophy with the scientific form. Based on the philosophical foundation of the formalized metaphysical form of science, the methodology of the scientific outlook does not essentially break away from formalization, so there is no Break away from metaphysics. All they can do is to replace one form of metaphysics with another. Moreover, they have not accomplished, and it is actually impossible, to reconcile metaphysics that are originally different forms. Logical relationships are separated. Just like Newton's theory of mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity cannot be logically separated.

Separating philosophy from science, equating science with truth, and using this to refute metaphysics is the mainstream of contemporary Chinese philosophy. An analysis of the problem shows that what actually happens is a formal question of the subject's conception of truth. The essence of this problem is the confusion between truth and the form of truth, that is, the form of truth is mistaken for the truth or the truth is excluded from the form. The form of truth itself cannot become the way-for-itself of truth. Any truth must be the otherness of the form of truth. The way of truth-in-itself is the formal process of the way-for-itself. Therefore, truth cannot form the truth itself, and any truth is it. In the freedom of manner with its form. Therefore, the in-itself of truth does not have any truth meaning. The meaning expressed as truth is usually the expression form of truth given by the corresponding self-for-itself. Obviously, using the meaning given by the truth itself to defend the truth itself is essentially a denial of the meaning of the truth itself. For example, the worthlessness of using a scientific worldview to criticize other forms of knowledge is the process mentioned above. The way science itself claims to be truth is essentially a denial of the ultimate value of truth. In short, truth cannot be the tool of truth, and truth that becomes a tool is not truth. Therefore, we have to ask, for science, is it a tool for knowing the truth, or is science the truth? If science is a tool for knowing the truth, Tools, science cannot represent the truth. Science should be equal to other tools that can understand the truth in terms of cognitive value. Science does not have any superiority. If science is the truth, then it is necessary to produce scientific forms. The method is not the form of science itself, so scientific truth will be denied by the way its own form is produced. Therefore, science is not the truth, but only a tool for understanding the truth, and science does not have any superiority that excludes other tools of understanding and replaces it. Therefore, any science is the result of the formalization of metaphysical forms---forms.

The theory of relativity points out that the so-called form of existence is only the form given by its own space-time reference system, and the true judgment made about it only exists in this reference system and does not apply to other reference systems. In other words, the results are not applicable. That is to say, there is no absolutely superior space-time reference system. Therefore, the validity of all truths will only correspond to the individual space-time reference system that produces the truth. Therefore, scientific conclusions are only the product of its own space-time reference system. The reason why Einstein ultimately pursued a unified field theory was to unify all forms of physical existence with a unified space-time reference system. However, this The unified space-time reference system corresponding to the isotropic anthropic principle does not exist.

Therefore, from the study of space-time issues in the theory of relativity, it may be concluded that the hierarchical and progressive relationships of space-time are the fundamental philosophical issues of the energy form of the evolutionary relationship of the existence form, which is what we are pursuing.

However, we see that the existence called objectivity is usually used as a reason to reject metaphysics. Since the relationship between objectivity and autonomy is a neglected issue in the history of philosophy, the misunderstanding of objectivity is the main cause of all problems. Taking objectivity - pure objectivity excluding subjective autonomy - as reality is the basis of all metaphysics. The only sign of objectivity - form, makes metaphysics possible. When all anti-metaphysics begins, it is only an attempt to change the form of objectivity or subjectivity. Therefore, anti-metaphysics is impossible.

When the subjective conceptual form is understood as either the form of objectivity - "materialism", or the form of subjectivity - "idealism", and the source of knowledge is divided in this way. Whether it is correct or not, we not only have to ask, is the subject's subjective cognitive ability objective? That is, does human cognition have an objective and self-existent foundation? If so, then, what arises from this self-existent foundation? The ideal form is in-itself and therefore objective. What philosophy pursues is the ultimate of this in-itself in order to determine the unity of for-itself and in-itself. The so-called dispute between idealism and materialism caused by this misunderstanding of metaphysics is actually a tragedy of metaphysics. Now is the time to end this tragedy, and this end can only begin at a new starting point in metaphysical philosophy.

Mistaking the existence-in-itself for formal necessity is actually a characteristic of Western metaphysics. When Western philosophy mistook the form of science as the perfect form of existence, it got carried away and began to oppose the metaphysical basis of science - denounced metaphysics.

Western anti-metaphysics has a specific form. The main reason for its anti-metaphysical method is after the emergence of modern natural science. At this time, due to human liberation and the discovery of the world, Represented by Descartes' rationalist philosophy and Bacon's positivist philosophy, the formal thinking method of existence inherited from the ancient Greek philosophical tradition was combined with the philosophical thinking of form-in-itself (metaphysical) and form-for-itself (metaphysical). ), and used this research form to judge ancient Greek philosophy and connect it with the history of philosophy. Therefore, it is only under this method that Aristotle's "After physics" is called metaphysics. This change in the philosophical term of metaphysics was unexpected by Aristotle, but it is a science that formalizes existence because it can divide existence into forms. produce inevitable consequences in the future.

However, after the emergence of philosophy as a metaphysics that distinguishes science with this new term, it essentially separated the scientific method of dividing the form of existence from philosophy, making the original concept in ancient Greece In the philosophical tradition, the philosophical form of philosophy inclusive of science was divided into two categories, so that subsequent philosophy no longer tolerated natural science, and philosophy only appeared as metaphysics. From then on, philosophy began its metaphysical form. Since we encountered insurmountable formalization difficulties in terms of what makes metaphysics possible, that is, the metaphysical proof of existence and the ontology of metaphysics, Huemer’s skepticism and Kant’s rationality attempted to justify metaphysics. Critically considering ontological agnosticism, it ultimately led to the formation of Hegel's metaphysics of science, which redissolved science into metaphysics, thus completing the formalization of Western philosophy.

I just explained the internal reasons for the development of Western philosophy---the formal division of philosophical metaphysics and science, as well as the in-itself of metaphysics and the dilemma of metaphysics---the formalization of existence is The main method of Western philosophy and the resulting content of the scientific form of existence. It is this methodological form that has caused Western philosophy to experience such a development process: the ancient Greek philosophy stage of the establishment of form; the perfection of form in Aristotle Stoute's philosophy (subject and object are not divided into periods); the emergence of formal natural science separated philosophy and science and called philosophy metaphysics to distinguish the rationalism (Descartes) and positivism (Bacon) of philosophy and science (subject and object) modern philosophy of separation); Hume's philosophy that doubts the possibility of metaphysics as to why metaphysics is possible; affirms the scientific nature of metaphysics, and proves that practical reason and moral reason are the basis of metaphysics for the emergence of form (excluding the possibility of metaphysics) Kant's philosophy that pioneered classical philosophy (the possibility of understanding the noumenon by pure reason starting from the form, believing that noumenon is unknowable); the form of unifying the form and cause of existence with the absolute spirit develops dialectically, thus re-establishing science. Unified into metaphysics, due to the ontological difficulties of this unified metaphysics - the unknowability of the absolute spirit of metaphysics in formal proof - thus reflecting the inevitable dilemma of formalized epistemology, Western philosophy eventually disintegrated. Hegel's philosophy; only then began the modern philosophical stage of complete subjectivity and anti-metaphysics due to the inability of metaphysics to prove the ontology of form and the progress of natural science's discovery of form. It can be said that the development of Western philosophy was in In the process of continuous formalization of existence, with the rise of natural science that formalizes existence, pure metaphysical methods become powerless, and metaphysics is regarded as the inevitable result of formalized and scientific philosophy. That is to say, it is not to reject philosophy (metaphysics that includes science), but to reject metaphysics without science (metaphysics that separates philosophy and science) - a metaphysics that has been doubted since Hume.

The metaphysical crisis of the philosophical method of formalizing existence is exposed in the dual division of philosophy, from the difficulty of the autonomy of the subjective form---"I think, therefore I am", to agnosticism , on the one hand, with the rapid progress of natural science and the difficulty of the formal identity of metaphysics, metaphysics has become impossible to become an effective method for understanding formalized existence. Metaphysics declined with the disintegration of Hegel's philosophy. , and the distinct anti-metaphysics that followed became an inevitable trend in Western philosophy.

The emergence and (hierarchical) perfection of forms and the thinking of their causes constitute the main structure and development context of Western philosophical forms. Therefore, contemporary Western philosophy finally discovered that form is the "mode" of the subject. , is the "structure" of the subject, it becomes even more powerless to deal with the formal ontological difficulties of metaphysics (this is the reason for the disintegration of Hegelian philosophy and the philosophical problems caused by its disintegration). When it is finally discovered that When the basis of formal ontology is difficult to determine and makes formal in-itself meaningless, Western philosophy goes against its fundamental philosophical approach and rejects philosophical metaphysics as a meaningless philosophical problem, thus forming the modern and contemporary philosophical trends.

Looking at modern Western philosophy, it can be said that there are springs of thought and many schools. The more representative ones include positivism, voluntarism, neo-Kantianism, philosophy of life, neo-Hegelianism, pragmatism, phenomenology, analytic philosophy, philosophy of science, existentialism, etc. They are all (clearly stated and self-contained). (or fundamentally avoid and be free) emerged from the ideological trend of rejecting metaphysics. This kind of philosophy that makes its own methodological form correspond to the subject between the forms of existence, that is, only obeys the subjective form, because of its It is not divorced from the formality of existence, and therefore it is not divorced from the metaphysical method of Western philosophy, reflecting the essence of metaphysical issues in modern Western philosophy.

As for the issue of anti-metaphysics in my country’s contemporary philosophical trends, the reasons do not go beyond the above-mentioned reasons for rejecting metaphysics in Western philosophy. Because China’s contemporary philosophy is (from V. Therefore, we must also understand the anti-metaphysics (so-called isolated, static, one-sided research methods) philosophical issues that have occurred in contemporary Chinese philosophy. A deep understanding of Western philosophy and reasons consistent with it.

However, the issue of anti-metaphysics in Chinese ideology should be attributed to political science and is not the content of philosophical research, so it is not within the discussion of this article.

3. The Philosophy of Metaphysics

In the contemporary philosophical environment, justifying the name of metaphysics seems not only inappropriate but also difficult. This is mainly due to the confusion in the understanding of metaphysical issues caused by the rejection of metaphysics and the abuse of scientism starting from modern philosophy. Although metaphysics has been criticized many times in history, metaphysics has never been treated in the same way as in the contemporary era - both Chinese and foreign philosophies have severely criticized and rejected metaphysics.

It can be said that after metaphysics was proved to be a scientific form by Kant in her classical stage and then perfected into the classical form by Hegel, the philosophical future of metaphysics was canceled by human will, and the future of metaphysics was canceled by scientific replaced by future. However, just as we have seen what science has experienced in contemporary times, when the metaphysical nature of science itself is gradually exposed, and after ontological reflection on science discovers its metaphysical characteristics, its development and its need for metaphysics When supported by philosophy, the revival of metaphysical philosophy will be a historical and rational necessity.

The reason why metaphysics has lasting vitality in philosophy is because in philosophy, "existence" is a question that all philosophy must answer, because it is a question that all philosophy is answering but always exists. As reason advances, the question of existence should be considered the greatest philosophical question that philosophy should answer. How "existence" exists, or how it should exist, is what our contemporary philosophy wants to answer. Whether human intelligence can recognize existence, and whether the existence recognized is the existence-in-itself, the process of answering these questions constitutes a metaphysical question. The formal metaphysics of Western philosophy that we are familiar with proves the formalization of existence, using form as a method to grasp existence---the philosophical method of Western metaphysics consisting of the form of thinking from existence to the form of existence cannot guide us to continue to deepen. When studying the question of existence as existence—when formalization difficulties arise in the form of existence, contemporary philosophy must first answer the question of why existence is existence.

However, before we answer the question of existence, we must first examine the existence of the subject itself. This is a formal issue of the existence of human subjectivity, because human beings have never been concerned about their own existence-the freedom of form. It has never been doubted, which arouses my doubts. This question is: how do people prove their own existence. My research found that, apart from providing formal proof of human existence, that is, the time and space forms that people have and the thinking that people carry out in their own time and space forms, Western philosophy has not given any more formal proofs of existence and existence. In order to provide reliable proof, the further question I raised is, how can human beings prove the essence of the space-time form in which they exist and the ontological relationship it possesses, as well as the autonomy of the space-time form they use in thinking, which constitutes my All metaphysical thinking.

We have seen that Western philosophy---formal metaphysics is the conclusion of existence. All the proofs of this philosophy are the forms of all existence---the inevitable formalization process by the subject. , once the formalization of existence encounters difficulties with the formalization of time and space limitations of the subject, the existence form of existence must also be limited by time and space. The formalization of space and time is subject to the formalization of time and space presented by the time and space limitations of the subject. Existence The form of existence is presented as non-deterministic by the spatio-temporal relationship of existence. Therefore, the ontological relationship of the form of existence should be questioned. The subjectivity of the form of existence makes the ontological relationship of existence subject to re-examination of our philosophy. However, , as we can see, Western philosophy either completely excludes the possibility of existence, or strives to prove the scientific form of existence, so as to seek the essence of existence, so that the ontological issues that philosophy has always pursued are brought to the West due to formal methods. Philosophical dilemmas. The modern and contemporary history of Western philosophy shows that the rejection of metaphysics resulted in the decline of Western philosophy after the philosophy of Hegel, the greatest metaphysician. The anti-metaphysical results of Chinese philosophy also have the same results as those of Western philosophy.

|It is necessary to understand the origin of metaphysics and metaphysics. Briefly, the following paragraph is taken from wikipedia|

"Metaphysics" in European languages ??comes from Greek, such as "metaphysics" in English. This word was originally the name given to a work by Aristotle by Andronikos, a philosophy teacher from Rhodes in ancient Greece, which means "above physics".

Metaphysics is also called "First Philosophy". For example, Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy" is also called "Meditations on First Philosophy". Aristotle divided human knowledge into three parts, using a big tree as a metaphor: the first part, the most basic part, which is the root of the tree, is metaphysics, which is the foundation of all knowledge; the second part is physics, It is like a tree trunk; the third part is other natural sciences, using branches as a metaphor.

The Chinese translation of "Metaphysics" is taken from the phrase "metaphysical is called the Tao, and what is metaphysical is called the implement" in the "Book of Changes".