The golden round Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have
thee crowned withal.
Shak.
Met`a*phys"ic*al*ly, adv. In the manner of metaphysical science, or of
a metaphysician. South.
Met`a*phy*si"cian (?), n. [Cf. F. métaphysicien.] One who is versed in
metaphysics.
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.
métaphysique. 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; philosophy in general; first
principles, or the science of first principles.
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.
||Me*taph"y*sis (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; after + &?; nature.] Change
||of form; transformation.
Met"a*plasm (?), n. [L. metaplasmus, Gr. &?;; &?; beyond, over + &?; to
mold: cf. F. métaplasme.] (Gram.) A change in the letters or syllables
of a word.
Met"a*plast (?), n. [See Metaplasm.] (Gram.) A word having more than
one form of the root.
Met"a*pode (?), n. [NL. metapodium, from Gr. &?; behind + &?;, dim. of
poy`s, podo`s, foot.] (Zoöl.) The posterior division of the foot in the
Gastropoda and Pteropoda.
Met`a*po"di*al (?), a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the metapodialia, or
to the parts of the limbs to which they belong.
||Met`a*po`di*a"le (?), n.; pl. Metapodialia (#). [NL. See Metapode.]
||(Anat.) One of the bones of either the metacarpus or metatarsus.
||Met`a*po"di*um (?), n.; pl. Metapodia (#). [NL.] (Zoöl.) Same as
||Metapode.
||Met`a*poph"y*sis (?), n.; pl. Metapophyses (#). [NL. See Meta-, and
||Apophysis.] (Anat.) A tubercle projecting from the anterior articular
||processes of some vertebræ; a mammillary process.
||Me*tap`te*ryg"i*um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; after + &?; fin.]
||(Anat.) The posterior of the three principal basal cartilages in the
||fins of fishes. -- Me*tap`ter*yg"i*al (#), a.
Met`a*sil"i*cate (?), n. (Chem.) A salt of metasilicic acid.
Met`a*si*lic"ic (?), a. [Pref. meta- + silicic.] (Chem.) Designating
an acid derived from silicic acid by the removal of water; of or
pertaining to such an acid.
The salts of metasilicic acid are often called bisilicates, in
mineralogy, as Wollastonite (CaSiO3).
Metasilicic acid (Chem.), a gelatinous substance, or white amorphous
powder, analogous to carbonic acid, and forming many stable salts.
Met`a*so"ma*tism (?), n. [Pref. meta- + Gr. &?;, &?;, body.] (Geol.) An
alteration in a mineral or rock mass when involving a chemical change
of the substance, as of chrysolite to serpentine; -- opposed to
ordinary metamorphism, as implying simply a recrystallization. --
Met`a*so*mat"ic (#), a.
Met"a*some (?), n. [Pref. meta- + -some body.] (Zoöl.) One of the
component segments of the body of an animal.
Met`a*stan"nate (?), n. (Chem.) A salt of metastannic acid.
Met`a*stan"nic (?), a. (Chem.) Pertaining to, or designating, a
compound of tin (metastannic acid), obtained, as an isomeric
modification of stannic acid, in the form of a white amorphous
substance.
Me*tas"ta*sis (?), n.; pl. Metastases (#). [L., transition, fr. Gr.
&?;, fr. &?; to place in another way; &?; after + &?; to place.]