Metaphysics: Existence, Causation, and the Nature of Reality

Abstract

This article examines central problems in metaphysics, including existence, substance, universals, persistence through time, modality, and causation. It explains how classical questions about being and reality have developed into contemporary debates shaped by formal logic, possible worlds semantics, and naturalistic approaches to ontology. By comparing major positions such as realism and nominalism, endurance and perdurance, modal realism and ersatzism, and different theories of causation, the article shows that metaphysics remains essential for clarifying issues that empirical science alone cannot fully resolve.