What Is Metaphysics?

Epistemology is about knowledge, about how or whether a given thing can be known, and metaphysics is about the things that exist.  The word metaphysics is sometimes misunderstood to necessarily refer only to things that are immaterial/supernatural, or things which are beyond the physical world of nature, regardless of whether the specific thing in question exists or can be demonstrated to exist.  In reality, everything nonphysical or physical that does exist is a metaphysical existent; while only a few immaterial things like logic, one's consciousness, space, and the uncaused cause can be proven to exist, it is impossible to prove that any specific external object of matter exists, as sensory epistemological limitations are severe, and even then, proving that any matter at all exists can be extremely difficult at first.  People can assume that things exist because it "seems" obvious to them in their emotionalistic persuasion and stupidity, but assumptions are not knowledge or proof, and it remains inescapably true that if something exists, it is under the domain of metaphysics whether or not it has material substance.

The core of metaphysics--which is ironically knowable more directly and easily than the material world because this is where self-evidence, logical necessity, and unalienable absolute certainty are found--is indeed beyond the physical world and the laws of nature that shape events in it, but the whole of metaphysics is broader than just the immaterial and the physical, encompassing both.  Everything that exists is within the metaphysics of reality, and even things that could have existed but do not are logically possible parts of metaphysics, although they happen to not actually exist.  Scientific laws are metaphysical in nature, regardless of whether they are phenomena in the actual external world or just perceptions of the mind and senses.  The external world is metaphysical in nature.  So, too, are logical truths, the uncaused cause, time, space, and everything else that does or could exist.  A universe where gravity behaves differently than it appears to now is metaphysically different from the universe I perceive now, just as the existence of two uncaused causes is metaphysically different than the existence of only one uncaused cause.

Again, metaphysics in a broader sense is what exists and what the nature of various real or hypothetical things is.  Although the name might make it seem as if it pertains to physics (scientific laws that govern how matter behaves) or perhaps strictly to that which is demonstrably or allegedly beyond physical substance, it is not just one or the other.  It is true that the only two things that exist which are self-evident, the laws of logic and one's own conscious mind respectively, are nonphysical, though even this aspect of them is not self-verifying, but follows from other truths about them which cannot not be true.  Recognizing the self-evident aspects of each of these is the start of valid epistemology that connects someone with actual knowledge, as opposed to assumptions, about what does, can, cannot, or might exist.  Epistemology and metaphysics are inseparably linked because without metaphysics, there is nothing to know, and without epistemological proof, even things which are true or exist cannot be known.

The laws of logic are the heart of all things in metaphysics and in epistemology.  All of reality is dictated by them.  Reason is the deepest aspect of reality in the sense of being the uttermost, inherent foundation because it is true by necessity, with everything else that is logically necessary being rooted in logical truths and anything that contradicts the laws of logic being impossible by default.  Reason is also the deepest of the more precise aspects of metaphysics (and epistemology) that go beyond the handful of self-evident axioms that govern all things, hinging or following from them, or at least being directly connected but not self-verifying.  In other words, the laws of logic are the supreme existent and the only intrinsically valid epistemological tool, as well as the only epistemological tool that the others cannot even be conceptually understood without.  What is metaphysics?  It is all that exists, and only things which are logically necessary or at least possible can exist or be true.