So what is metaphysics, exactly? Like most metaphysical questions, that’s not an easy one to answer. We might think based on the word itself that it refers to some ‘meta’ version of physics, but that’s not quite accurate.
‘Metaphysics’ was actually coined by Andronicus of Rhodes, a bibliographer of Aristotle’s books in the first century BCE.
Andronicus was looking to categorize the works that came after Aristotle’s writings on ‘Physics’, and thus simply grouped them with the title ‘After Physics’ — or, ‘Metaphysics’.