ontology understood as the study of what there is and metaphysics understood as the study of what it is.

 tHE DISTINnction— between ontology understood as the study of what there is 

and metaphysics understood as the study of what it is.

problem: : one cannot truly fix an ontology without also, and at the same time, accepting or presupposing specific metaphysical views.

For instance, often the question, ‘Do you believe in the existence of God?’, receives the answer, ‘It depends on what you mean by ‘God

'an omni potent creator' but this is an identifying descriptions not characterizing description.

'there is nothing incoherent in the thought that one could assert the existence of certain entities before embarking in metaphysical speculation /concerning their ultimate nature'.' 

 Few would doubt that there are such things as dollar bills, passports, traffic lights, universities, weddings, nations, and so on. But when it comes to saying what they really are, there is plenty of room for disagreement.11 (Even Marx’s treatment of commodities—the category of social objects that is the focus of no less than The Capital—begins with the claim that the analysis of such things shows them to be, in reality, ‘very queer things, abounding in metaphysical subtleties’.