What is metaphysics?

Pick up any object, say a cup. You can ask what it looks like: white, round, a handle. You can ask what it is made of: ceramic, which is made of molecules, which are made of atoms. Science is very good at that second kind of question.

But there is a third kind of question that science quietly assumes an answer to. What does it mean for the cup to exist at all? Is it one thing, or just many atoms arranged cup-wise? Is it the same cup tomorrow? Could it have been different? Those are metaphysical questions.

Metaphysics is the part of philosophy that studies the most general features of reality: existence, objects, properties, change, time, causes, possibility, minds. The name comes from Aristotle's books that were shelved “after the Physics” (meta ta physika).

You do not need special knowledge to do metaphysics. You need everyday examples, and the patience to keep asking “but what is that, really?”