[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-526441-105":59,"doc-detail-526441-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","philosophy-now-issue-176-lets-get-metaphysical","Philosophy Now - Issue 176 - Let’s Get Metaphysical","","Philosophy Now Issue 176 (October/November 2026) explores metaphysics through core questions about reality, time, God, and whether something can exist rather than nothing. Articles discuss the value of asking “Why is there something rather than nothing?”, examine causality via perspectives on Hume and everyday cause-and-effect, and consider how physics and Kant help interpret ultimate reality. Additional pieces address what metaphysics is and how its role shifts across traditions and modern paradigms.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/philosophy-now-issue-176-lets-get-metaphysical/526441/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/philosophy-now-issue-176-lets-get-metaphysical/526441.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Kurz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-08",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What metaphysics is said to study in this issue?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Metaphysics is presented as dealing with the underlying nature or structure of the universe—features not directly detected by the senses or measured by scientific instruments, but potentially accessible to reason.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the issue discuss the question “Why is there something rather than nothing”?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The editorial notes an article that examines whether it is even worth asking the question, with the author concluding it is.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the issue connect causality to philosophical debate?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It highlights discussions of whether causality exists, contrasting everyday assumptions about cause and effect with David Hume’s sceptical critique that still influences philosophers today.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},526441,1791511735,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":62},2336478945635,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","ISSUE 176 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2026  \na magaz i ne of ideas  \nHume and Causation  \nWhy is there Something, rather than Nothing?  \nKant, Quantum Physics,  \nand the Nature of Reality What is Metaphysics?  \nEditorial  \nLet’s Get Metaphysical  \nS  \no, what’s it all about, then? Metaphysics is a word to scare the timid. It wraps itself in an air of mystery. The everflexible term covers an enormous range of fundamental  \nquestions and is regularly used by authors of a mystical bent to label their nuttier ideas. If someone sidled up to you at a party, fixed you with an intense glare and offered to explain their system of metaphysics, you’d probably start plotting your exit.  \nThis is in some ways a pity, as you may already be interested in a number of metaphysical questions, even if you don’t habitually call them that. Metaphysics is about the underlying nature or structure of the universe – those aspects of it that cannot be detected by our senses or measured by the instruments of science, but may be accessible to our reason. The word itself was coined by one of Aristotle’s posthumous editors as a title for the manuscript of his that came immediately after the one called the Physics. Metaphysics is Greek for ‘After Physics’. The manuscript discussed a whole assortment of knotty problems that had struck Aristotle as foundational, particularly concerning the nature of being, and of substances, and essences, and universals. These days, questions regarded as being metaphysical include:  \nWhat is time? Is there a God?  \nWhy is there something rather than nothing? Is there such a thing as cause and effect?  \nAre things that happen ever ‘meant to be ’?  \nIs there an ultimate reality not accessible to us through our senses?  \nThese are some of the enduring core problems of philosophy. When in the 18th and 19th centuries German professors used to craft huge multi-volume philosophical systems, they’d generally give metaphysics pride of place. First sort out how things really are, you can imagine them saying, contentedly puffing smoke rings from their meerschaums, and then afterwards you can move on to relative trifles such as ethics, aesthetics and theology. Metaphysics was the “Queen of the Sciences”, as Immanuel Kant called it, until eventually it was deposed by economics, as we all know.  \nNo single issue of this magazine, alas, could possibly address all of the vital and fascinating questions listed above. It does, however, have an article examining Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing (perhaps we should call it WTISRTN studies, for convenience?), which explores whether it is even worth us asking that question. (Plot spoiler: the author thinks that it is) . We also have an article – well, two, actually – on  \nwhether there’s such a thing as causality. When one billiard ball strikes another, and the second one then moves off in a more or less predictable direction towards the corner pocket, is that because the second was caused to move by the first?“Of course it is, buffoon! Have you never played billiards?”, you yell, throwing down your magazine. Yet David Hume, Britain’s greatest philosopher, history’s greatest sceptic, cast such a penetrating gaze upon causality that philosophers still look askance at it today. Yet cause and effect is the foundation of our daily existences. One thing leads, predictably and reliably, to another and while that may sometimes be inconvenient for us it does at least provide some sort of foundation upon which we can construct our lives. And what is ultimate reality? Physics has moved on enormously, and quantum mechanics provides mathematical tools with astonishing power to predict the behaviour of the microscopic world. Yet we still aren’t really sure what is going on, how we should interpret all the mathematics in intuitive handwaving terms. Another article here says that for this we could use some help from Immanuel Kant, and in particular from his famous distinction between the phenomenal world (which ","cbCailpu05V2e1QJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailpu05V2e1QJ","pdf",22826146,68,"English","# Hume and Causation\n## Why is there Something, rather than Nothing?\n## Kant, Quantum Physics, and the Nature of Reality\n## What is Metaphysics?\n# Editorial\n## Let’s Get Metaphysical\n## So, what’s it all about, then?","[{\"question\":\"What metaphysics is said to study in this issue?\",\"answer\":\"Metaphysics is presented as dealing with the underlying nature or structure of the universe—features not directly detected by the senses or measured by scientific instruments, but potentially accessible to reason.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the issue discuss the question “Why is there something rather than nothing”?\",\"answer\":\"The editorial notes an article that examines whether it is even worth asking the question, with the author concluding it is.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the issue connect causality to philosophical debate?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights discussions of whether causality exists, contrasting everyday assumptions about cause and effect with David Hume’s sceptical critique that still influences philosophers today.\"}]","Philosophy Now - Issue 176 - Let’s Get Metaphysical | PDF",1791497907]