ABSTRACT
On a narrow conception, metaphysics in the Middle Ages was the subject called by that name and directly linked to Aristotle’s Metaphysics. On a wider conception, it includes both that subject and medieval treatments of whatever topics are now considered metaphysical. This chapter discusses the accounts of the basic constituents of things, before and then after Aristotle’s Metaphysics became current. It focuses on the debate over the subject of metaphysics and the relationship between metaphysics and theology. The chapter also discusses some accounts of non-things – items that seem to figure in an ontology, without being considered properly speaking as entities. It looks at a central issue in the medieval philosophy of time: how is the notion of eternity to be understood? The most interesting area of the medieval philosophy of time is the discussions about eternity. Their intensity was the result of theological needs.
