ABSTRACT
Aristotle famously characterized metaphysics as the study of being qua being, or of being as such. A simpler way of putting the same idea is to say that metaphysics, according to Aristotle, is an investigation into the different kinds or categories of being. To understand what he had in mind, it is helpful to know that, as Aristotle saw things, terms like “being” or “existence” have a variety of different meanings. For the past couple of decades, there has been a growing trend among metaphysicians of saying that metaphysics is the study of what is fundamental, or basic. Fundamental things, if there are any, are the things out of which all others are made, or the things without which nothing else could even exist. They are the “grounding” entities, the things on which everything else in the world depends.
