Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Stephen Mumford

Metaphysics is one of the traditional four main branches of philosophy, alongside ethics, logic, and epistemology.

Metaphysics is the subject among all others that inspires the sense of wonder in us, and for that reason some think that doing metaphysics is the most valuable use we could make of our time.

Plato thought that the perfect circle existed in a heavenly, transcendent world: above and beyond the physical world of everyday objects that we inhabit. This heavenly realm would contain all the true versions of all the properties and relations too.

Substances can survive a change in their parts in a way that a mere aggregate of parts cannot.