A French philosopher of science, Emile Meyerson, once wrote: “Thinking metaphysically is as natural as breathing.” [De l’explication dans les sciences (Paris: 1927), p. 20] If, by “thinking metaphysically,” he meant, among other things, having a lively curiosity about ourselves and the world around us, wondering about such things as the origin and destiny of the world and of people in it, accepting, perhaps without knowing why, the first principles of reason that underlie our whole social structure—if that is what he meant, we would undoubtedly agree with his statement. What Meyerson said is more than a statement of a man who was himself a great thinker; it is something that everyone has experienced for himself at some time or another. Indeed, it would be more correct to say that this kind of thinking is more natural than breathing, because breathing is something shared with many other kinds of beings on earth, but thinking is something specifically human, and all thinking is to some extent metaphysical, since there are certain fundamental metaphysical presuppositions at the bottom of it.

If the statement about everyone being a metaphysician is true because in some way this simply means acting like a human being, then a broader statement that everyone is a philosopher is also true, for the metaphysician is the philosopher par excellence. Therefore, if we want to see more clearly how man is a metaphysician, we should first of all find out what the more generic classification, philosopher, means. Who is a philosopher? In his Commentary on the Metaphysics [of Aristotle] St. Thomas takes up the etymology of the word and tells us how it was first used:

“The philosophers were men who were moved to philosophize because of wonder, and since wonder comes from ignorance, it is evident that they began to philosophize in order to escape ignorance. So it is clear that they pursued knowledge and sought it zealously, only for the sake of knowing and not because of some utility.

“From the name wisdom that was first used (for this inquiry) there has been a change to the name philosophy, though both names mean the same thing. The early sophists who undertook the study of wisdom were called wise men. But when Pythagoras was asked what he would like to be called, he refused to take the name wise man, as his predecessors had done, because this seemed to him presumption. He called himself a philosopher, that is, a lover of wisdom. Hence the name was changed from wise man to philosopher, and from wisdom to philosophy. This latter name is more appropriate, for he is recognized as a lover of wisdom who seeks it not for the sake of something else but for itself. On the other hand, a person who seeks something for the sake of something else loves that for the sake of which he seeks something rather than what he seeks.” [St. Thomas, Commentary on the Metaphysics, I, 3, 55-56]

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