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1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 1. Nature of Metaphysics

[nature of the most abstract philosophy]

27 ideas
Understanding begins with the notion of being and essence [Avicenna]
Metaphysics is the best knowledge, because it is the simplest [Bacon]
Maybe analysis seeks the 'nominal essence', and metaphysics seeks the 'real essence' [Locke, by Mumford]
Metaphysics is a science of the intelligible nature of being [Leibniz, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
Metaphysics is a systematic account of everything that can be known a priori [Kant]
Metaphysics is generating a priori knowledge by intuition and concepts, leading to the synthetic [Kant]
The ideal of reason is the unification of abstract identity (or 'concept') and being [Hegel]
Hegel doesn't storm the heavens like the giants, but works his way up by syllogisms [Kierkegaard on Hegel]
Metaphysics is pointless without exact modern logic [Peirce]
Metaphysics is a universalisation of physical anguish [Cioran]
Quinean metaphysics just lists the beings, which is a domain with no internal structure [Schaffer,J on Quine]
Descriptive metaphysics aims at actual structure, revisionary metaphysics at a better structure [Strawson,P]
Metaphysics should avoid talk of past, present or future [Smart]
Metaphysics aims at the simplest explanation, without regard to testability [Ellis]
I don't think Lewis's cost-benefit reflective equilibrium approach offers enough guidance [Stalnaker]
Metaphysics is the most general attempt to make sense of things [Moore,AW]
Substantive metaphysics says what a property is, not what a predicate means [Molnar]
Metaphysics focuses on Platonism, essentialism, materialism and anti-realism [Benardete,JA]
A metaphysics has an ontology (objects) and an ideology (expressed ideas about them) [Oliver]
Metaphysics deals with the existence of things and with the nature of things [Fine,K]
Science needs metaphysics to weed out its presuppositions [Lowe, by Hofweber]
Metaphysics is the mapping of possibilities [Lowe, by Mumford]
You cannot understand what exists without understanding possibility and necessity [Hale]
Metaphysics is (supposedly) first the ontology, then in general what things are like [Hofweber]
Modern Quinean metaphysics is about what exists, but Aristotelian metaphysics asks about grounding [Schaffer,J]
Metaphysics is a quest for truthmakers [Tallant]
Using modal logic, philosophers tried to handle all metaphysics in modal terms [Correia/Schnieder]