| 释义 |
metaphysical, a.|mɛtəˈfɪzɪkəl|
[f. metaphysic + -al1.]
1. a. Of or belonging to, or of the nature of, metaphysics; such as is recognized by metaphysics.
1432–50[see metaphysic n.1 1]. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 386/1 Argumentes grounded vpon philosophy & metaphisicall reasons. 1550Nicolls Thucyd. v b, The sciences that he calleth speculatiue, be the metaphisicals. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vii. iii. 345 A popular expression, which will not stand a Metaphysicall and strict examination. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. i. v. Rule i. §6 Negative doubt is either Metaphysical or Moral. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. vi. (1695) 333, 1. Moral Truth... 2. Metaphysical Truth, which is nothing but the real Existence of Things, conformable to the Ideas to which we have annexed their Names. 1792D. Stewart Philos. Hum. Mind I. 72 The word cause expresses something which is supposed to be necessarily connected with the change; and without which it could not have happened. This may be called the metaphysical meaning of the word; and such causes may be called metaphysical or efficient causes. 1867Bp. Forbes Explanation 39 Articles i. (1881) 14 The triple distinction of God's attributes into metaphysical, intellectual, and moral. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. ii. v. 301 Instead of a metaphysical theory, what he gives is scarcely more than a logical classification.
b. Applied with more or less of reproach to reasoning, ideas, etc. which are considered over-subtle, or too abstract.
1646Bp. Maxwell Burd. Issachar 31, I confesse, this Divinitie is so transcendent and Metaphysicall, that it exceeds my capacitie. 1720Swift To Yng. Clergyman Wks. 1751 V. 24 Some Gentlemen..are apt to fill their Sermons with Philosophical Terms and Notions of the metaphysical or abstracted Kind. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., The word is also used to denote something subtile, abstract, and refined. In which sense we say, such a reasoning, such a proof, is too metaphysical, &c.
quasi-n.1935E. R. Eddison Mistress of Mistresses x. 192 You may have a nose for metaphysicals..but here you cry out upon no trail. I know nothing. Only, I am.
c. Applied to concepts or propositions which, by relying on abstract principles, are not considered verifiable in terms acceptable to some logical positivist or linguistic philosophers. Cf. metaphysics n. pl. 1 c.
1865Mill in Westm. Rev. XXVII. 344 The mode of thought which M. Comte terms Metaphysical, accounts for phænomena by ascribing them, not to volitions either sublunary or celestial, but to realized abstractions. 1922tr. Wittgenstein's Tractatus 151 Where in the world is a metaphysical subject to be noted? 1936A. J. Ayer Lang., Truth & Logic i. 31 We may accordingly define a metaphysical sentence as a sentence which purports to express a genuine proposition, but does, in fact, express neither a tautology nor an empirical hypothesis. 1950R. Carnap Logical Found. Probability ii. 38, I hope that nobody will misinterpret my statement of the objectivity of logical relations as a metaphysical statement of the ‘subsistence’ of these relations in a Platonic heaven. 1953G. E. M. Anscombe tr. Wittgenstein's Philos. Investigations §116 What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.
2. Based on abstract general reasoning; determined on theoretic or a priori principles.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. v. §361 When they saw..that, from metaphysical considerations what might be done in case of necessity, the militia of the kingdom was actually seized on. 1773Johnson in Boswell 8 May, There seems (said he), to be in authours a stronger right of property than that by occupancy; a metaphysical right, a right, as it were, of creation, which should from its nature be perpetual. 1826Scott Woodst. vi, In many a case, where wars have been waged for points of metaphysical right, they have been at last gladly terminated, upon the mere hope of obtaining general tranquillity.
3. [Partly in a pseudo-etymological sense = ‘beyond what is physical’.]
a. Applied, esp. in explicit contrast to physical, to what is immaterial, incorporeal, and supersensible.
1577G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 56 And all that glorious company Of parsonages heroicall To greete with salutations Divine and metaphysicall. 1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 591 The blessed Trinity..framed both the beneficial and hurtful Creatures, either for a Physical or Metaphysical end. 1668H. More Div. Dial. i. xxviii. (1713) 58 Hyl... There is also a Substance distinct from Matter, which therefore must be immaterial, and consequently Metaphysical. 1775Harris Philos. Arrangem. (1841) 377 Thus, having before considered physical motion, have we now considered what may be called metaphysical, or..causative motion. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 316 Beautiful as fire is in itself, I suspect that part of the pleasure is metaphysical, and that the sense of playing with an element which can be so terrible adds to the zest of the spectacle. 1877S. Cox Salv. Mundi iv. 56 That..the wicked will be turned into a place of..torment physical or metaphysical.
b. That is above or goes beyond the laws of nature; belonging to an operation or agency which is more than physical or natural; supernatural.
1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamberl. iv. ii, The essentiall fourme of Marble stone, Tempered by science metaphisicall, And Spels of magicke from the mouthes of spirits. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. v. 30 The Golden Round, Which Fate and Metaphysicall ayde doth seeme To haue thee crown'd withall. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. ii. 1059 The Pestilence..partly metaphysicall appears, And partly naturall. 17..Warburton Note on Rape of Lock i. 20 As the subject of the epic consists of two parts, the metaphysical and the civil. 1822Scott Pirate xxxviii, In these plain words there is no metaphysical delusion. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. (Bohn) I. 392 The lurking dæmons sat to him,..and the metaphysical elements took form.
†c. Surpassing what is natural or ordinary; extraordinary, transcendent. Obs.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 75 The excellence of such a Metaphysicall vertue, I meane (shepheards) the fame of your faire Samela, houering in the eares of euerie man as a miracle of nature.
d. Christian Science. Applied to that which transcends matter or the physical; metaphysical healer, one who heals physical ills through metaphysics; so metaphysical healing.
1876A. B. Alcott Jrnls. (1938) 466 A wider acquaintance with idealism in its various phases will be serviceable to these ‘Metaphysical Healers’ and ‘Christian Scientists’ as they call their school. 1884M. B. Eddy in Christian Sci. Jrnl. 2 Feb. 2 Metaphysical healing, or Christian Science, is a demand of the times. 1907‘Mark Twain’ Christian Sci. i. 70 Mrs. Eddy is president of the Trust's Metaphysical College in Boston, where the student of C.S. healing learns the game by a three weeks' course. 1939M. Gregory Psychotherapy iv. 178 Students, intoxicated with her doctrines, came there for instruction in metaphysical ‘obstetrics’ and moral science. 1958T. L. Leishman Why I am Christian Scientist viii. 116 Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease. 1972Pioneers in Christian Sci. (Mary Baker Eddy Mus., Longyear Hist. Soc.), Asa Gilbert Eddy..studied with her and began the practice of metaphysical healing.
4. Of persons, their minds, etc.: Addicted to or fitted for the study of metaphysics.
a1628F. Greville Sidney (1652) 175 Many Metaphysicall Phormio's before me, who had lost themselves in teaching Kings, and Princes, how to govern their People. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. i. 24 The fourth is ἄνθρωπος θεωρητικὸς, the true metaphysical and contemplative man. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. ii. 3 Majerus and Spagnetus..being a sort of Metaphisical Chimists, who do make it a chief Principle of that Science to be strict in their Devotion towards God. 1853Kingsley Hypatia I. Pref. 12 In the more metaphysical and contemplative East. 1856Mrs. Stowe Dred I. xv. 203 His metaphysical talent.
Comb.1654Gayton Pleas. Notes 117 A Metaphysicall pated Disputant.
5. Adopted by Johnson as the designation of certain 17th cent. poets (chief of whom were Donne and Cowley) addicted to ‘witty conceits’ and far-fetched imagery. In more recent use, of poetry which expresses emotion within an intellectual context; also ellipt. as n., a metaphysical poet. Hence metaphysiˈcality, the quality of being metaphysical.
[1693Dryden Orig. & Progr. Satire Ess. (ed. Ker) II. 19 He [Donne] affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts... In this..Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault. ]a1744Pope in J. Spence Anecd. (1820) 173 Cowley..as well as Davenant borrowed his metaphysical style from Donne. 1779Johnson L.P., Cowley Wks. II. 22 About the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets... The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to shew their learning was their whole endeavour. 1785T. Warton Milton's Poems Pref. 15 But what are these conceptions [of Cowley's]? Metaphysical conceits, all the unnatural extravagancies of his English poetry. 1814Southey in Q. Rev. XII. 82 The metaphysical school, which marred a good poet in Cowley, and found its proper direction in Butler, expired in Norris of Bemerton. 1898G. Saintsbury Short Hist. Eng. Lit. vii. ii. 412 Crashaw is perhaps the chief metaphysical, the type of the whole class. 1906H. J. C. Grierson First Half 17th Cent. ix. 374 In Donne's love-poetry there is a real metaphysical strain, while the range of erudition from which he draws his imagery was something altogether new. 1921G. Saintsbury in Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Oct. 698/2 [Dryden] might..so use ‘metaphysics’ as equivalent to ‘second thoughts’, things that come after the natural first; and, once more, this definition would, I think, fit all the poetry commonly called ‘metaphysical’. Ibid., I only hope that in a second edition he will add a few more ‘specimens’ of the lighter metaphysicality. 1936Essays & Stud. XXI. 137, I use ‘metaphysical’ not in the Johnsonian sense of ‘conceited’, but as implying a certain refinement and complexity of thought—a kind of ecstasy of intellectual parturition as we find it in Shakespeare and Donne. 1947C. Day Lewis Colloq. Element Eng. Poetry 21 The poets of the Romantic Movement gave an outlet to new ideas..beneath the crust of their age, just as the Metaphysicals had done for the new ideas of their time. 1955R. Graves Crowning Privilege ii. 27 Dryden's conversion from metaphysicality was not to the poetic faith of his English predecessors, but to current French theory. 1960D. Daiches Crit. Hist. Eng. Lit. II. xiv. 1114 The insistence that intellect and emotion should work together in poetry and that one should seek to recover the ‘unified sensibility’ of the metaphysical poets. Ibid. 1116 But the poets who began to write in the late 1920's and 1930's saw both Hopkins and Eliot as their masters, as well as the metaphysicals..and the popular singers of the English music hall.
6. Used for: Fanciful, fantastic, imaginary.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., A metaphysical case, is an imaginary or chimerical case, which can scarce ever happen, or not without much difficulty; and which ought not to be laid down as a rule for common occasions. 1809J. Lawrence Hist. Horse 125 The colours of horses, notwithstanding the metaphysical notions of former days, are of very little consequence in relation to their goodness. 1827Scott Chron. Canongate Introd. i, Those metaphysical persons whom the law of the neighbouring country terms John Doe and Richard Roe.
7. in appos. use, as metaphysical-aesthetical, metaphysical-epistemic adjs.
1963Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Jan. 4/4 Dr. Kramrisch does not disdain any of the resources of jargon, metaphysical-aesthetical, aesthetical-theosophical. 1971Hist. of Sci. X. 111 A consistent and effective metaphysical-epistemic understanding of science. |