All 10 Uses
metaphysical
in
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
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- The sophistication of the humor of the infantile imagery, when inflected in a skillful mythological rendition of metaphysical doctrine, emerges magnificently in one of the best known of the great myths of the Oriental world: the Hindu account of the primordial battle between the titans and the gods for the liquor of immortality.†
p. 152.7metaphysical = about things beyond the physical world, such as existence, reality, or the soul
- Where the inherited symbols have been touched by a Lao Tze, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ, or Mohammed—employed by a consummate master of the spirit as a vehicle of the profoundest moral and metaphysical instruction—obviously we are in the presence rather of immense consciousness than of darkness.†
p. 221.1
- The key to the modern systems of psychological interpretation therefore is this: the metaphysical realm = the unconscious.†
p. 222.4 *
- Correspondingly, the key to open the door the other way is the same equation in reverse: the unconscious = the metaphysical realm.†
p. 222.4
- Very often, during the analysis and penetration of the secrets of archaic symbol, one can only feel that our generally accepted notion of the history of philosophy is founded on a completely false assumption, namely that abstract and metaphysical thought begins where it first appears in our extant records.†
p. 227.5
- This idea is superbly rendered in another metaphysical genealogy of the Maoris:†
p. 234.3
- Furthermore, the metaphysical pre-existence of the Platonic archetype of the shark is implied in the curious logic of the final dialogue.†
p. 251.4
- Thereupon the old demiurgic sire in the midst of his community became a metaphysical anachronism.†
p. 264.1
- We now must describe it from the second, where it becomes a symbol of the same metaphysical mystery that it was the deed of the hero himself to rediscover and bring to view.†
p. 275.9
- Mythology has been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to explain the world of nature (Frazer); as a production of poetical fantasy from prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages (Muller); as a repository of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group (Durkheim); as a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human psyche (Jung); as the traditional vehicle of man's profoundest metaphysical insights (Coomaraswamy); and as God's Revelation to His children (the Church).†
p. 330.3
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.