Metaphysics
Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics.
It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world.Someone who studies metaphysics would be called either a "metaphysician"or a "metaphysicist".The word derives from the Greek words metá) (meaning "beyond" or "after")and(physiká) (meaning "physical"),"physical" referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity.
The prefix meta-("beyond") was attached to the chapters in Aristotle's work that physically followed after the chapters on "physics", in posthumously edited collections.Aristotle himself did not call these works Metaphysics.Aristotle called some of the subjects treated there "first philosophy".
A central branch of metaphysics is ontology.
Before the development of modern science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as "natural philosophy.