  Requirement specifications in software engineering involve developing a
conceptual model of a target domain. The model is based on ontological
exploration of things in reality. Many things in such a process closely tie to
problems in metaphysics, the field of inquiry of what reality fundamentally is.
According to some researchers, metaphysicians are trying to develop an account
of the world that properly conceptualizes the way it is, and software design is
similar. Notions such as classes, object orientation, properties,
instantiation, algorithms, etc. are metaphysical concepts developed many years
ago. Exploring the metaphysics of such notions aims to establish quality
assurance though some objective foundation not subject to misapprehensions and
conventions. Much metaphysical work might best be understood as a
model-building process. Here, a model is viewed as a hypothetical structure
that we describe and investigate to understand more complex, real-world
systems. The purpose of this paper is to enhance understanding of the
metaphysical origins of conceptual modeling as exemplified by a specific
proposed high-level model called thinging machines (TMs). The focus is on
thimacs (things/machine) as a single category of TM modeling in the context of
a two-phase world of staticity and dynamics. The general idea of this reality
has been inspired by Deleuze s the virtual and related to the classical notions
of Leibniz's monads and Avicenna's essence. The analysis of TMs leads to
several interesting results about a thimac s nature at the static and existence
levels.
