Metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates the basic nature of reality and existence, including what kinds of things exist and how they relate.

Ontology: The study of what exists and how entities can be classified. It is metaphysics’ central inquiry into what kinds of things reality contains.
Substance theory: A view that treats enduring substances as basic bearers of properties. It explains persistence by distinguishing an underlying thing from its changing qualities.
Realism: The view that at least some things exist independently of how they are conceived or perceived. Metaphysical realism treats reality as more than a product of thought or language.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works shaped logic, natural science, and metaphysics. His writings established enduring questions about substance, causes, and being.
Personal identity: The question of what makes a person the same individual over time. It applies metaphysical accounts of identity to memory, bodies, and personal survival.
Identity: The relation by which an entity is the same entity across descriptions or over time. Metaphysics asks what makes something remain itself through change.
Process philosophy: A philosophical approach that treats becoming and change as more fundamental than enduring things. It reverses substance theory’s priority, making processes rather than stable objects basic.
Anti-realism: A family of views denying that truth or existence is wholly independent of conceptual schemes or practices. It contests realist assumptions about a mind-independent world.
Plato: An ancient Greek philosopher who developed the theory of Forms and founded the Academy. His account of Forms made the relation between abstract and sensible reality central.
Mind–body problem: The problem of how mental phenomena relate to bodies and physical processes. It tests whether reality includes fundamentally mental features alongside the physical.

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