> I think modern usage of the term dates to Aristotle's books: Physics & Metaphysics. 'Physics' is about nature and feels like a direct ancestor to modern science. 'Metaphysics' is pretty close to what we still call metaphysics. Most people think of these things (logic, ethics, epistemology as science).
Tangential to all this, but a fun apropos: it's interesting that the original title of Aristotle's (multiple 'books' collectively known as) 'Metaphysics' is (widely believed to be) a matter of noting down the arrangement/order of his treatises: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (ta meta ta fysika) - '[writings] after the Physics' (Physics being another arrangement of prior treatises of his.)
'What comes after Physics' can of course be evaluated conceptually, but many scholars think that 'τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά' here means 'writings that come after the Physics'.
Which is a somewhat humbling (if that's the word) idea, and which might be able to reduce the aura of drama and mystique oft associated with the word of 'metaphysics'. :)
Tangential to all this, but a fun apropos: it's interesting that the original title of Aristotle's (multiple 'books' collectively known as) 'Metaphysics' is (widely believed to be) a matter of noting down the arrangement/order of his treatises: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (ta meta ta fysika) - '[writings] after the Physics' (Physics being another arrangement of prior treatises of his.)
'What comes after Physics' can of course be evaluated conceptually, but many scholars think that 'τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά' here means 'writings that come after the Physics'.
Which is a somewhat humbling (if that's the word) idea, and which might be able to reduce the aura of drama and mystique oft associated with the word of 'metaphysics'. :)