Metaphysics...

by Maria Odete Madeira

The term metaphysics (ta meta ta physika) refers to the branch of philosophy that studies the first causes, principles and origins of all things. Causes, determinations, reasons and respective foundations are approached within metaphysics. 

As a science of the first principles and the first causes of all existing things, metaphysics is an archeology (arche). As science of the being as being it is ontology.

Metaphysics is irreducibly a philosophical concept about the first causes, principles and origins of all existing things, one must stress that we are not addressing anything that is outside the Cosmos/Order. Indeed, every physical object is also a metaphysical object, in its connection with its origin and foundation.

Whenever a cosmologist is talking about the first causes and the first principles of the Cosmos/Order, inquiring about the nature of the laws of physics, or upon the foundations of physics he/she is in a metaphysical inquiry, metaphysics plays an important part in today's cosmology, a fact that is undeniable and widely known throughout the scientific community. When one does research about the foundations of science one is also within a metaphysical context of discourse.