The branch of thought that questions whether anything actually has inherent form, or whether form is just a convenient illusion our minds impose on a shapeless universe. It asks: Is a circle a real thing, or just an idea? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to perceive its tree-shaped-ness, is it still tree-shaped? And if you dream of a square, is that square less real than a square drawn on paper? Metaformal philosophy is the art of realizing that the boxes we put things in are themselves just things in bigger boxes, and the biggest box of all is the universe, which may or may not have a shape we can comprehend.
Example: "Staring at a coffee mug, he entered a state of metaformal philosophy. 'Is this mug inherently mug-shaped,' he wondered, 'or is its 'mugness' just a temporary arrangement of atoms that my brain has been trained to label as a container for hot beverages? And if I call it a hat and put it on my head, does it become hat-shaped?' He then spilled coffee on himself and realized that, philosophically, the mug was still a mug, but practically, it was now a mess."
by Nammugal February 14, 2026
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