1355. Metaphysics concerns itself with . . .

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Metaphysics concerns itself with: 

". . . [the] common element of all possibility."

". . . [the] universally common element [sc. of all actualities and possibilities] which by definition would be necessary."

". . . the ultimate invariant, in the sense of the common factor, of reality, present throughout all changes, past or to be anticipated. It is, however, rather an infinite flexibility than a rigid inflexibility. It is really an infinite creative and cognitive power and comprises an unimaginably vast range of possibilities ... It forbids nothing and is the alternative to nothing, save nonsense, or what appears to be something but is not, such as unthinkable confusion or unthinkable monotony." 

". . . the necessary content of the something [sc. that must be], in distinction from the contingent entities that may or may not be."

". . . what is common to a set of possibilities ... all possibilities whatever, all that is genuinely conceivable."

". . . the common factors of all possibility, abstract elements of being in all becoming."

". . . the common features of all times, to which there is no alternative because they are presupposed by the very idea of alternation – as its universally common traits, involved on both sides of each and every choice."

". . . the necessary nonrestrictive aspect of reality."

". . . the noncontingent ground of all contingency."

 ". . . that which has always been part of the settled content of the future, and thus has never been and will never be an open possibility." 

". . . the creative ground capable of producing various sorts of contingent worlds, bound to produce something contingent, but not the particular contingent world that exists."

". . . the essential or generic features ... in the reality some portion of which is always given to us."

". . . the purely general outline of existence, totally without concrete filling. " 

". . . the outline for which all that is concretely real provides unimaginable richness of definite actuality."

". . . the empty featureless invariant in all possible variations."

". . . the abstract common denominator of alternative possible truths." 

". . . the soul of factuality itself and the very basis of all alternativeness, the potential registrant of whatever value or importance either side of any disjunction can have, hence not subject to intelligible denial."

". . . the absolutely pervasive factor of reality [that is] in anything and everything."