\Met`a*phys"ics\, n. [Gr. ? ? ? after those things
which relate to external nature, after physics, fr. ? beyond,
after + ? relating to external nature, natural, physical, fr.
? nature: cf. F. m['e]taphysique. See {Physics}. The term was
first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that
part of his writings which came after, or followed, the part
which treated of physics.]
1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal
   being; ontology; also, the science of being, with
   reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as
   distinguished from the science of determined or concrete
   being; the science of the conceptions and relations which
   are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being;
   phylosophy in general; first principles, or the science of
   first principles.

Note: Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special.
      {General metaphysics} is the science of all being as
      being. {Special metaphysics} is the science of one kind
      of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of morals,
      or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic
      exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge
      of which is altogether independent of experience, would
      constitute the science of metaphysics.

            Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics, as
            being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which
            hath that for title; but it is in another sense:
            for there it signifieth as much as ``books
            written or placed after his natural philosophy.''
            But the schools take them for ``books of
            supernatural philosophy;'' for the word
            metaphysic will bear both these senses. --Hobbes.

            Now the science conversant about all such
            inferences of unknown being from its known
            manifestations, is called ontology, or
            metaphysics proper.                --Sir W.
                                               Hamilton.

            Metaphysics are [is] the science which determines
            what can and what can not be known of being, and
            the laws of being, a priori.       --Coleridge.

2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena;
   mental philosophy; psychology.

         Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken,
         is a science or complement of sciences exclusively
         occupied with mind.                   --Sir W.
                                               Hamilton.

         Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not
         help Our physics.                     --Mrs.
                                               Browning.