#metaphysics

• Apse — A semicircular or polygonal vaulted niche or room, usually located at the rear of a Christian church or ancient basilica, extending the main nave and housing the altar. In the philosophy of religion and the anthropology of the sacred, the apse is not merely a geometric form, but symbolically represents 'heaven' or the transcendent dimension, an architectural core where dogmatic values and absolute moral principles are revealed to the community.
• Absoluteness — An archaic, rare, or regional form of the abstract noun 'absolutism' or 'absoluteness', found sporadically in early translations of philosophical and legal texts from the 18th and 19th centuries. Conceptually, the term denoted the state or quality of being sovereign, unconditioned, independent of any external relationship, or possessing a total moral and political authority that brooks no normative limitation.
• Absolute — 1. Adjective and adverb expressing something complete, perfect, total, independent of anything else, and suffering no limitation or condition. 2. Neuter noun (capitalized: the Absolute): a fundamental metaphysical concept denoting the ultimate, perfect, unconditioned, and infinite reality, the divinity, or the ultimate foundation of existence. In ethics, the term defines immutable moral values (such as Good or Truth) that remain valid regardless of historical or cultural contexts.
• Agnosticism — A philosophical doctrine or doctrine of epistemology holding that the existence of God, the divine, or the essential reality of things is unknowable or unprovable. It posits that human reason is inherently limited, thereby suspending definitive judgment on metaphysical and supernatural claims.
• Anti-philosophical — Opposing the fundamental spirit, methods, or principles of philosophy; rejecting abstract theoretical speculation, the search for truth via pure reason, or the validity of metaphysical systems. It describes rigid, dogmatic, or purely pragmatic attitudes viewing conceptual questioning as useless.
• Anti-materialist — Opposing materialism as a philosophical doctrine or as a lifestyle focused on the accumulation of tangible goods; an adherent of idealism, spiritualism, or the prioritization of metaphysical and moral values over physical ones. In a structural sense, it describes metaphysical theories asserting the primacy of the spirit, consciousness, or ideal forms over concrete material substance.
• Aristotle — Aristotle of Stagira (384–322 BCE), one of the most significant philosophers and scientists of Ancient Greece, a disciple of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great. Founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school, his encyclopedic body of work laid the foundations for formal logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics, rhetoric, and biology, exerting a massive influence on medieval Christian, Islamic thought, and the entirety of Western culture.
• Aristotle — An onomastic variant or regional/archaic linguistic form used to denote Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece, a disciple of Plato and mentor to Alexander the Great. A systemic thinker, he founded the Lyceum in Athens and laid the formal foundations of logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and biology, with his structural work deeply influencing Western and medieval Islamic culture.
• Aristotelianism — A spelling or archaic variant for 'aristotelism' (Aristotelianism); a fundamental philosophical movement based on the writings of Aristotle and continued by the Peripatetic school. This doctrinal system emphasizes the empirical study of nature, syllogistic logic, virtue ethics as a form of balance, and metaphysics based on the concepts of substance, matter, and form. The form with 'z' appears in older Romanian texts or those influenced by Slavic or German transcription.
• Aseity — A philosophical and theological concept denoting the structural attribute of a being (specifically the Deity) to exist by and of itself, having the cause or foundation of its own existence within its own nature, without depending on any external cause or creator. It represents the absolute independence of the primordial metaphysical being.
• Aspatial — Independent of space, occupying no space, having no physical dimensions, or situated outside the geometric concept of spatial extension; abstract, immaterial, or spiritual. In a philosophical context, it describes metaphysical entities or states of pure consciousness that cannot be measured or localized three-dimensionally.
• Timelessness — The trait or quality of being timeless; an existence placed outside of time, independent of chronological flow or temporal determinations. In philosophy and art, it represents a dimension of eternity or universality, where values, concepts, or creations maintain their validity and essence unchanged, unaffected by the passage of ages or historical context.
• Absolute capacities — A rare plural form or abstract neologism designating the totality of capacities, possibilities, or absolute latent forces of action within a cosmic or spiritual system; the collective levers of omnipotence. In modern speculative philosophy, the term describes the multiple dimensions through which an absolute will can implement its decrees.
• Self-grounding — The act or process by which a conceptual system, a philosophical doctrine, a science, or one's own consciousness establishes its own foundations, first principles, or legitimacy, without resorting to external justifications or pre-established postulates. In transcendental idealism and modern metaphysics, the term describes the absolute autonomy of thought or of the Subject which is its own cause and its own ground of formal validity.
• Self-motion — A movement that has its cause inside the very system or object that is displacing, occurring through internal impulses, forces, or contradictions, without being determined by a direct external impulse. In dialectical materialism and classical metaphysics (such as the theories of Aristotle or Hegel), the concept describes the fundamental property of matter to develop, evolve, and transform through its own structural dynamics, rejecting the idea of an external first impulse.