- published: 11 Jun 2013
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Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:
A person who studies metaphysics is called a metaphysicist or a metaphysician. The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, e.g., existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. Another central branch of metaphysics is cosmology, the study of the totality of all phenomena within the universe.
Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. The term science itself meant "knowledge" of, originating from epistemology. The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from philosophy. Thereafter, metaphysics denoted philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence.
Phil Valentine is an American conservative talk radio show host in Nashville, Tennessee. He broadcasts daily on flagship station WWTN, a Cumulus Media station, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Central Time and is syndicated through Dial Global on over 110 radio stations. He is probably best known in Tennessee for leading protests against a state income tax.
Valentine is the son of former six-term Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Valentine of North Carolina, but is nonetheless a self-described conservative. His mother is the late Betsy Valentine who was killed in an auto accident one month shy of Valentine's 22nd birthday. He grew up in Nashville, North Carolina, and graduated from Northern Nash High School. After attending East Carolina University, he decided on a career in radio. ECU did not offer a broadcast major so Valentine left the university and enrolled in Carolina School of Broadcasting in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Valentine is the author of three books, The Conservative's Handbook, Right from the Heart: The ABC's of Reality in America, and Tax Revolt. Mr. Valentine was very active as a community organizer for the people of Tennessee to stop the passage of this bill against their wishes as citizens of that state. The Conservative's Handbook is a revision of Right from the Heart with new chapters and updated information. The foreword for both books was written by Sean Hannity.
The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.
As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.