Metafisica May 2026

While metaphysics is a global discipline, the Italian peninsula has played a pivotal role in its transmission and evolution.

The Scholastic Peak: The Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) produced perhaps the most rigorous metaphysical system in Western history. His actus et potentia (actuality and potentiality) framework explained how change is possible without falling into logical contradiction. For Aquinas, metaphysics was not a flight from reality but the deepest engagement with it—seeing God as Ipsum Esse Subsistens (the very act of existing itself).

The Idealist Revolution: In the 19th century, thinkers like Giovanni Gentile radicalized metaphysics. His concept of attualismo (Actual Idealism) argued that pure, dynamic thought is the only reality. There is no static “nature” outside of the act of thinking it. For Gentile, which influenced Fascist intellectuals as well as later existentialists, metaphysics became the history of philosophy itself. Metafisica

The Traditionalist School: In the 20th century, Julius Evola—despite his political controversies—wrote extensively on a metaphysical “Traditionalism.” Drawing from Guénon and Eastern texts (Advaita Vedanta, Tantra), Evola argued for the existence of a Regno dell’Essere (Realm of Being) beyond temporal history. He contrasted the modern world’s chaotic “becoming” with the ancient world’s stable “being.”

Quantum mechanics reveals that particles can be in superposition (multiple states at once) and that observation seems to collapse the wave function. Does that mean consciousness creates reality? Physicists disagree, but metaphysical analysis is required to interpret what these equations mean. This is the field of philosophy of physics. While metaphysics is a global discipline, the Italian

The word itself sounds heavy, ancient, and perhaps a little intimidating. Metafisica. It is a term that has traveled from the libraries of Ancient Greece to the canvases of 20th-century Italian painters, picking up layers of meaning along the way.

To understand it, you first have to look past the common misconception. In everyday language, people often confuse "metaphysics" with the "supernatural"—ghosts, crystals, or mysticism. While related, they are not the same. Metaphysics is not the study of magic; it is the rigorous, logical study of what is real. For Aquinas, metaphysics was not a flight from

The name is actually a historical accident. In the 1st century BC, an editor named Andronicus of Rhodes was organizing the works of Aristotle. He arranged the writings on physics (physika) and then placed a set of treatises on "first philosophy" on the shelf right after them. He labeled them ta meta ta physika—"the things after the physics."

Ironically, the name stuck perfectly. "Meta" implies "beyond." So, Metaphysics became the study of that which lies beyond the physical world—the invisible scaffolding upon which the visible universe is built.