Metaphysics is often caricatured as the discipline that argues about ghosts, possible worlds, and obscure puzzles disconnected from real life. Yet metaphysics is also the discipline that asks questions every other field quietly presupposes: What is it for something to exist? What is a thing, and what makes it the same thing over time? What […]

Metaphysics is often misunderstood because it works with questions that sit beneath everyday assumptions. People use metaphysical ideas constantly—about identity, causation, possibility, time, and truth—without noticing that they are doing metaphysics. When these assumptions remain implicit, arguments become confused. People disagree passionately while talking past one another. This essay identifies common confusions in metaphysics and […]

People often assume that “evidence” is a single thing: data collected by observation and experiment. That assumption is powerful and often correct in the natural sciences. Yet it becomes misleading when it is applied universally, because many domains of thought use evidence differently: history, law, mathematics, ethics, and philosophy. Metaphysics changes the way you interpret […]