Taking the Measure of Metaphysics (Jim Carey)

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Jim Carey onApril 24, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “According to Aristotle, there is a science (epistēmē) that considers being as being, or that which is insofar as it is.  This science later came to be known as ‘metaphysics,’ a word that Aristotle himself does not use but which came into use a few centuries after he died and has been with us ever since. Metaphysics does not consider that which is in terms of its particular features, as do other sciences such as astronomy, chemistry, biology, and psychology.  The concern of metaphysics is broader than that of physics.  Physicslimits itself to the study of perceivable beings, to bodies that are in motion or capable of being put into motion. Though metaphysics does not limit itself this way, it does not adopt as a premise that there is something outside the domain of physics.  Instead, it begins by considering the verythings that physics considers, but in a different way.  Whether, starting from such a basis, metaphysics can demonstrate the existence of something ‘beyond’ nature, and, if so, what pertains to its essence, is a controversial question.  The various answers to this question constitute the history of metaphysics, or discourse about being, from ClassicalAntiquity through the Middle Ages and into Modernity.  In my talk I will highlight and attempt an assessment of what I consider to be the most consequential events in thishistory, which culminates, after a fashion, in Heidegger’s claim that not only is discourse about being historical, but being itself is historical."