metaphysician

metaphysician

English

Etymology

From Middle English methafisicien, from methafisik on the model of fisicien or perhaps from rare and late Old French methafisicien.[1][2]

Noun

metaphysician (plural metaphysicians)

1. (philosophy) A philosopher who specializes in the scholarly study of metaphysics.

   Thomas Aquinas was a notable metaphysician.

   Professor Jones is an eminent metaphysician; she has produced more than one hundred refereed publications concerning metaphysics.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 65:

     Now it so happened that Francis was Mrs. Clarke's favourite: whether from having seen the least of him, or from the great difference between them—two common causes of liking—or because she felt some sort of vanity in her near relationship to so very fine a gentleman, are points too curious to be decided by any but a metaphysician.

   • 1854, George Boole, An Investigation Of The Laws Of Thought, On Which Are Founded The Mathematical Theories Of Logic And Probabilities, Watchmaker Publishing, published 2010, →ISBN, §III.15, page 34:

     PROPOSITION IV.
        That axiom of metaphysicians which is termed the principle of contradiction, and which affirms that it is impossible for any being to possess a quality, and at the same time not to possess it, is a consequence of the fundamental law of thought, whose expression is x² = x.

   • 2014 April 12, Michael Inwood, “Martin Heidegger: the philosopher who fell for Hitler [print version: Hitler's philosopher]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎, London, page R11:

     In 1928 Heidegger succeeded Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg and in his inaugural lecture made a pronouncement that earned him a reputation as an archetypal metaphysician with his claim that our awareness of people as a whole depends on our experience of dread in the face of nothingness.

Synonyms

• metaphysicist

Translations

A philosopher who specializes in the scholarly study of metaphysics

Belarusian: метафі́зік m (mjetafízik) Catalan: metafísic m, metafísica f Danish: metafysiker c Dutch: metafysicus m Esperanto: metafisikisko Estonian: metafüüsik Finnish: metafyysikko (fi) Galician: metafísico (gl) m, metafísica (gl) f German: Metaphysiker (de) m, Metaphysikerin (de) f Hungarian: metafizikus (hu) Icelandic: frumspekingur m Italian: metafisico (it) m, metafisica (it) f Latvian: metafiziķis m, metafiziķe f Polish: metafizyk (pl) m Portuguese: metafísico (pt) m, metafísica (pt) f Russian: метафи́зик (ru) m (metafízik) Spanish: metafísico (es) m Swedish: metafysiker (sv) c Ukrainian: метафі́зик m (metafízyk)

References

1. “metaphisicien, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
2. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “metaphysician”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.