All 7 Uses
metaphysical
in
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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- Beethoven's hero is a lifter of metaphysical weights.†
Chpt 1 *metaphysical = about things beyond the physical world, such as existence, reality, or the soul
- In Kant's language, even Good morning, suitably pronounced, can take the shape of a metaphysical thesis.†
Chpt 5
- So Beethoven turned a frivolous inspiration into a serious quartet, a joke into metaphysical truth.†
Chpt 5
- First (as an unfinished sketch) would have come the great metaphysical truth and last (as a finished masterpiece)the most frivolous of jokes!†
Chpt 5
- Amid the general idiocy of the war, the death of Stalin's son stands out as the sole metaphysical death.†
Chpt 6
- The objection to shit is a metaphysical one.†
Chpt 6
- Repeated use, however, has obliterated its original metaphysical meaning: kitsch is the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and the figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.†
Chpt 6
Definitions:
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(1)
(metaphysical) relating to things beyond the physical world—such as existence, reality, God, or the soul—and sometimes to ideas that are very abstract or overly theoreticalPeople often use metaphysical for beliefs or questions that go beyond what can be directly tested by science—for example, beliefs about the soul, God, or what ultimately makes something real. These are usually things without material form that you cannot touch or measure.
In philosophy, metaphysical specifically refers to metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that studies being and knowing—questions like "What is real?", "Do we have free will?", or "What does it mean for something to exist?"
In everyday language, someone might call a discussion metaphysical if it feels very abstract or "off in the clouds," as in "They got lost in a metaphysical argument about whether anything is truly knowable." -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely, metaphysical can reference a 17th-century style of British poetry.