Metaphysics has signified many things in the history of philosophy, but it has not strayed far from a literal reading of "beyond the physical." It has been a search for the preconditions of existence, for the meaning of being, for original causes and final ends (purpose), especially for that which is beyond our senses - the "things themselves." In an epistemological age after Descartes, it became the preconditions for knowledge, especially knowledge of physical things, somehow independent of our sensible experience, and especially certain knowledge - knowledge by abstract Reason alone.

Aristotle's original concerns in his "First Philosophy" were ontology (the science of being), cosmology (the fundamental processes and causes of physical things), and theology. Our information philosophy is well endowed to reflect on all these questions.

The Problem of Knowledge - really the problem of certain knowledge when our means of perception is limited and fallible.

The Problem of Metaphysics - are there unavoidable a priori first principles of philosophy? There are definitely axioms or starting assumptions for all thought and reasoning.

The Problem of Universals - Porphyry's fateful question, "Do the categories exist?" is seen to be a question of informational isomorphism between our ideas and things in the world.