I’m uncertain whether this is the right area for this topic to be discussed, if it is not, I apologize… I’m pretty new at this 
I would be very interested in reading your opinion/s on Metaphysics. I realize it is a broad spectrum, feel free to begin anywhere.
Is ‘everything you can imagine’ really ‘real’? Is each individual’s interpretation of reality, simply that, an interpretation… or does reality exist?
O.
When you “imagine” something, it has reality in the sense that the thought or idea of it forms in the mind. That is, it’s ‘reality’ consists only of electro-chemical reactions in the brain. If I imagine a pink unicorn, it’s only the idea of a pink unicorn that exists…not the unicorn itself.
metaphisics is used most oftenly to refer to considerations about matters that are beyond the scope of the scientific method.
hence you are asking us the equivalent of what is our oppinion on the color blue. at best we can say well… its a color, why do you ask ?
and what precisely you mean by reality ? as i said somewhere else, its a false impresion that reality is a quality of objects directly and immediately accessible to the subject.
well, If I’m not mistaken, the simplest definition of metaphysics can come from first defining the word itself. “Meta”=After; hence, “metaphysics” are “physics” that we can only observe after they “occur”
Sorry if that didn’t seem to make a whole ton of sense.
Correct me if i’m wrong, i i’m yet to study Philosophy at degree standard…currently studying my alevels so ithought i’d leave Philosophy for uni. I always thought Metaphysics was the study of Phenomena? Or just simply the study of something that we can never actually know. Philosophy/Metaphysics are are off the same branch really. 
The term metaphysics came about accidentally and not with a meaning intended. When Aristotle’s works were being compiled in 70 BC, three centuries after his death, by Andronicus of Rhodes, he was left with a bunch of works that he didnt know where to put to. And so he bundled these remnant fourteen treatises, and put it after Aristotle’s work on Physics, and hence Metaphysics, meaning that which comes after physics. So for this word you cant try to get its meaning from its etymology, which is meaningless. You have to find the meaning from what metaphysics is as it has become.
I think that sounds like a spurious story. meta- can mean next-to – like in meta-ethics. Aristotle says that metaphysics is “the study of being qua being.” – and his book on the subject was fairly cohesive for dealing with several topics.
I’ve heard that story about the compilation of Aristotle’s works before. I believe it to be accurate.
Ah, thanks for informing me. I was actually guessiung when I tried to “break-down” the root-parts of the word, “metaphysics” in my other post----I didn’t actually get that definition from a book or anything. Interesting history though.
My personal “issue” with metaphysics is this:
Whenever a friend asks me, “So, what area of philosophy appeals to you most?”, I feel like responding with “Metaphysics”.
However, if I really take a close look at my specific areas of interest, I find that they stray more and more awayt from true metaphysics and closer and closer to things such as epistemelogy, ontology, or even the sciences (usually physics-related stuff).
Maybe this does not seem to happen to any of you guys, I really dunno nor do I care.
Who would you say was a well-known metaphysist (must be a person who’s primary philosophical pursuits were in metaphysics)? I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head (maybe descartes). Just curious…
Thank you all for your input 
… opinions and definitions.
I would like to mention ‘Chanelling’… it is is a way, related to Metaphysics.
Has anyone heard of this concept? Where one is able to spiritually cross to pervious lives (Not only previous lives but also to other dimensions and to those who have passed on), explore and uncover things which are bothering them in this life. Before I go on, I would be interested to know if anyone believes in re-incarnation… that we are in someway connected to the people we meet and know ‘today’.
Channeling is achieved through deep meditation. Has anyone experienced this?
O.
The are two common usages of the word “Metaphysics”. One refers to a rigorous and academic philosophical study and the other refers to New Age hacks like Shirley McLaine who hide their nonsense behind it. I think channeling could properly be classified in the latter.
Plato i think delcared his ‘‘proof’’ of a previous life? He said ‘‘How do you know ‘‘soemthing’’? It is because you ‘‘remember’’ it’’ he said that this is proof of a previous life. Obviously not though. When you first meet soembody, you do not remember them. It is only when you ‘‘know’’ them that you remember them.
Max, you’re obviously a skeptic towards ‘New Age’ concepts… is there a reason for that?
Rami, yes… thank you. I recall reading that.
"When you first meet soembody, you do not remember them. It is only when you ‘‘know’’ them that you remember them.
O.
Metaphysics is any concept that transcends logical and physical meaning yet conveys some sort of information. For example the square root of a number is a defined and logical concept. The square root of the square root without putting any number argument in it and without assigning it any logical (or any conceptual meaning) and yet retaining that it means something deep or mysterious or assigning it some abstract (yet not understandable) METAPHYSICAL sense and understanding that the value of the new symbol invented is exactly in the fact that it has no clear sense. Now do this with an ever increasing number of new symbols, thoughts and detaching it ever more from any possible sense or meaning. This is real metaphysics.
Yeah, calling me a skeptic would be understating the case. However, I try to keep an open mind. If, using logic and reason, a case can be made for any New Age ideas, then I’m more than willing to entertain them…in spite of my acknowledged predisposition.
Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy that studies the nature of things. The first example being the pre-socratic Thales that though the basic nature of things was water. It is highly related to ontology, questions about what exist, but there is a differance. Most of today’s metaphyisics is done in sub-feilds. Questions about reverse causation, free-will, the mind-body problem, ect. all fall under the general heading of metaphysics.
Depending on who you ask, the sciences may be considered part of metaphysics as they aslo investigate the nature of stuff. However, there is also a sense to metaphysics of it being somehow deeper and more general. Yet, considering how specific the problems are that modern metaphysicians not takle, I’m not sure that’s really part of the term any more.