Source edition
Aristotle. Aristotle's Metaphysics, Vol. 1-2. Ross, William David, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924 (printing).
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work aims to establish "first philosophy," a unique science that investigates "being as being" and its primary principles and causes. Starting from the natural human desire for knowledge, the author demonstrates that philosophy, arising from wonder, is a free and self-sufficient science pursued for its own sake rather than for utility. In the first half, the text critically examines how preceding philosophers treated the four causes—material, formal, efficient, and final—and rigorously refutes the contradictions within Plato's theory of Ideas and the Pythagorean theory of numbers. It then establishes the principle of non-contradiction as the foundation of all inquiry and systemizes the multiple meanings of being through the definition of substance (ousia), essence, and the distinction between potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (energeia). In the latter half, the discussion demonstrates the existence of an eternal "unmoved mover" (divine intellect), which sustains the eternity of motion and time by moving the cosmos as an object of desire and thought without being moved itself. Finally, the work concludes that neither separate mathematical objects nor Ideas can serve as the first principles of the universe, reaffirming that all things are ordered under a single ruling principle.
Contents
159 chunks
Cited by book.section
- §1.1#1
- §1.1#2
- §1.2#1
- §1.2#2
- §1.3#1
- §1.3#2
- §1.4
- §1.5#1
- §1.5#2
- §1.6
- §1.7
- §1.8#1
- §1.8#2
- §1.9#1
- §1.9#2
- §1.9#3
- §1.10
- §2.1
- §2.2
- §2.3
- §3.1
- §3.2#1
- §3.2#2
- §3.3
- §3.4#1
- §3.4#2
- §3.4#3
- §3.5
- §3.6
- §4.1
- §4.2#1
- §4.2#2
- §4.3
- §4.4#1
- §4.4#2
- §4.4#3
- §4.5#1
- §4.5#2
- §4.6
- §4.7
- §4.8
- §5.1
- §5.2#1
- §5.2#2
- §5.3-5.4
- §5.5
- §5.6#1
- §5.6#2
- §5.7-5.8
- §5.9-5.10
- §5.11
- §5.12
- §5.13-5.14
- §5.15
- §5.16-5.18
- §5.19-5.23
- §5.24-5.26
- §5.27-5.28
- §5.29-5.30
- §6.1
- §6.2#1
- §6.2#2
- §6.3-6.4
- §7.1-7.2
- §7.3
- §7.4#1
- §7.4#2
- §7.5
- §7.6
- §7.7#1
- §7.7#2
- §7.8
- §7.9
- §7.10#1
- §7.10#2
- §7.11#1
- §7.11#2
- §7.12
- §7.13
- §7.14
- §7.15
- §7.16
- §7.17
- §8.1
- §8.2
- §8.3
- §8.4-8.5
- §8.6
- §9.1
- §9.2
- §9.3
- §9.4-9.5
- §9.6
- §9.7
- §9.8#1
- §9.8#2
- §9.9
- §9.10
- §10.1#1
- §10.1#2
- §10.2
- §10.3
- §10.4
- §10.5
- §10.6
- §10.7
- §10.8
- §10.9-10.10
- §11.1
- §11.2
- §11.3
- §11.4-11.5
- §11.6#1
- §11.6#2
- §11.7
- §11.8
- §11.9
- §11.10#1
- §11.10#2
- §11.11
- §11.12#1
- §11.12#2
- §12.1-12.2
- §12.3
- §12.4
- §12.5
- §12.6
- §12.7
- §12.8#1
- §12.8#2
- §12.9
- §12.10#1
- §12.10#2
- §13.1
- §13.2#1
- §13.2#2
- §13.3
- §13.4#1
- §13.4#2
- §13.5
- §13.6
- §13.7#1
- §13.7#2
- §13.7#3
- §13.8#1
- §13.8#2
- §13.8#3
- §13.9#1
- §13.9#2
- §13.10
- §14.1#1
- §14.1#2
- §14.2#1
- §14.2#2
- §14.3#1
- §14.3#2
- §14.4
- §14.5
- §14.6