system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What do philosophers means they call something metaphysical?

I was told that metaphysical is any and all object that is not strictly physical. Words, numbers, algorithms. But the way some philosophers use it makes me think that the definition i was given was wrong. For example, 'La phenomenologie' by Jean-François Lyotard says that the vision of essence is not metaphysical. I am confused please help me.
gpt
While philosophers use the word "metaphysics" without any hassle, it is hard to pinpoint what exactly this word means to a person who has not observed its meaning in use.

Well, think of our actual physical world. When describing the existing world, we utter sentences such as "magnetic field exists", "this object has eroded over time", "this building is red", "a memory has flashed in his mind" and so on. These utterences are strictly physical, but they are interesting to a metaphysian in that they invoke the most general categories within which the world is "carved at its joints". The magnetic field might exist, but what is this "existence" we are talking about? This object might erode over time, but what is this "temporality" we are talking about? The building might have a certain property, such as having red color, but that is this "property of an object" we are talking about? A memory might flash in his mind, but what is this "mind" we are talking about?

So, when philosophers call something metaphysical, by that they typically mean that they are describing the most general features of our physical world, such as existence, predication, modality, mind, identity and so forth. The scientific language of physics makes no such demands, these categories are taken as self-evident there for methodological reasons.