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Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. Metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:
- Ultimately, what is there?
- What is it like?
Metaphysics attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, e.g., existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. Some include epistemology as another central focus of metaphysics, but others question this. Another central branch is metaphysical cosmology: which seeks to understand the origin and meaning of the universe by thought alone.
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