Full Idea
The plummet touches the bottom of the sea now at a greater depth, now at a less, but is bound to reach it somewhere sooner or later; the study of this inexplicable devolves upon metaphysics.
Gist of Idea
Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation
Source
Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], I:1)
A Reaction
This definition of metapysics contains the germ of despair about the subject. Does he hope that metaphysicians can explain what nobody else can?
Book Reference
Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.117
Related Idea
Idea 21473 All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable [Schopenhauer]