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)
Book Reference
Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.117
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?
Related Idea
Idea 21473 All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable [Schopenhauer]