Metaphysics Metaphysics: A contemporary introduction is for students who have already done an introductory philosophy course. Michael J. Loux provides a fresh look at the central topics in metaphysics, making this essential reading for any student of the subject. This third edition is revised and updated and includes branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between possibility and actuality Beginning of book 7 of Aristotle's Metaphysics: Ens dicitur multipliciter ("the word 'to be' has many senses") Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin philosophia naturalis) was the philosophical study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science.It is considered to be the precursor of natural science.. From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, natural philosophy was the common term for the practice of studying ARISTOTLE METAPHYSICS: L.0, C.1. this did him good, and similarly in the case of Socrates and in many individual cases, is a matter of experience; but to judge that it has done good to all persons of a certain constitution, marked off in one class, when they were ill of this disease, e.g. Aristotle (Stagira, Macedonia, 384 BC - Chalicis, Euboea, Greece, 7 March 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher.He was one of the most important philosophers in the history of Western civilization. It is said that Aristotle wrote many books, but only a much smaller number survive. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Artistotle lived from 384-322 BCE. He was a Greek philosopher and is often referred to as the "first teacher" or the very "first true scientist." His works cover a number of topics from politics, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, ethics, biology and more. The philosophy of self defines, among other things, the conditions of identity that make one subject of experience distinct from all others. Contemporary discussions on the nature of the self are not thereby discussions on the nature of personhood, or personal identity. The self is sometimes understood as a unified being essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency (or, at The word "metaphysics" is generally held to have come from the title given to one of Aristotle's works by the scholars of the Library of Alexandria: Metaphysics, or in Greek, ??????????. Aristotle himself referred to the subject as "first philosophy". The name came from the way this work was filed in the Library. Aristotle on Substance, Matter, and Form Metaphysics ?: the study of being qua being Aristotle often describes the topic of the Metaphysics as "first philosophy." In Book IV.1 ( ?.1) he calls it "a science that studies being in so far as it is being" (1003a21). (This is sometimes translated "being qua being.") W hat does this mean? Metaphysics is hard to define. The term itself can mean "beyond physics" but it's tricky to get more precise without inviting controversy. Early use of the term simply referred to the topics covered by the work placed after (hence meta) the Physics in the traditional editing and not commentary of Aristotle's works made by the Greek Peripatetic philosopher Andronicus Of Rhodes. Commentaries on Aristotle refers to the great mass of literature produced, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify the works of