Blackwell Reference Online

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M etaphysics [from Greek logos , theory + ont , being] The Latin term ontologia was introduced in the seventeenth century for a branch of metaphysics to be distinguished from other branches, namely rational theology, rational cosmology , and rational psychology. Christian Wolff did much to gain acceptance for the term. As the theoretical or general part of metaphysics and as the general theory of being , ontology is often used for metaphysics as a whole. Ontology deals with the essential characteristics of being itself (of Aristotle 's being qua being ), and asks questions such as “What is or what exists?,” “What kind of thing exists primarily?” and “How are different kinds of being related to one another?” The investigation of the meaning of being began with Parmenides and received a systematic discussion in Aristotle. In this century, Heidegger and Quine have taken completely different approaches to ontology. Heidegger asks what character being must have if human consciousness is to be what it is. Quine proposes his maxim “To be is to be the value of a bound variable” to determine what things a theory claims to exist. His doctrine of ontological relativity suggests that what we can take to exist is relative to the theory and language that we bring to the situation. “The use of the term ‘ontology’ to refer to metaphysics appears in early modern philosophy ... log in or subscribe to read full text