1. Introduction What is Metaphysics?

2. Etymology “Meta” (meaning “above” or “after”) and “physics” (meaning “the study of nature”) Metaphysics is the study of questions about the physical world that are left unanswered by the natural sciences. Mind & Body Freedom & Determinism Causation Laws

3. Mind and Brain

4. Freedom and Determinism

5. Causation

6. Laws

7. Metaphysics I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." -Justice Potter Stuart, Jacobellis v. Ohio

8. Appearance and Reality

9. Loose and Strict Ryan: I’m going to be late getting home for dinner - I’m so dead! Hud: That’s strange – you don’t look dead. Ryan: No, no. I’m not literally dead – I just mean that my wife is going to kill me, so I’ve got to hurry up and get home. Hud: You’re wife’s going to kill you?! Then why are you in such a hurry to get home? Ryan: No, no, no. She’s not really going to kill me – she’ll just be upset at me… That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!

10. Loose and Strict Ryan: The average family has 1.8 children. Hud: 1.8 children?! Now there’s something you don’t see every day! I’d like to meet this family – where do they live? Ryan: No, no, no – there isn’t really any such thing as the average family. All I meant was that families, on average, have 1.8 children. If you add up all the kids and divide by the number of families, you get 1.8.

11. Loose and Strict The average family has 1.8 children. Sherlock Holmes is a detective. There is a number between 1 and 3. Wisdom is had by Socrates.