Metaphysics (Aristotle)

Template:The Works of Aristotle Metaphysics (Greek: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, "things after the ones about the natural world"; Latin: Metaphysica) is one of the principal works of Aristotle, in which he develops the doctrine that is sometimes referred to as Wisdom, sometimes as First Philosophy, and sometimes as Theology. The work is a compilation of various texts treating abstract subjects, notably substance theory, different kinds of causation, form and matter, the existence of mathematical objects and the cosmos, which together constitute much of the branch of philosophy later known as metaphysics.

Overview

Aristotle's worldview is rooted in an analysis of natural language, common sense, and the observations gathered from the natural sciences. The result is a synthesis of the naturalism of empirical science, with a critical inquiry into language, ontology and epistemology which has now informed intellectual traditions around the world for more than two thousand years. At the heart of the book lie three questions. What is existence, and what sorts of things exist in the world? How can things continue to exist, and yet undergo the change we see about us in the natural world? And how can this world be understood?

Title, style, date, and the arrangement of the treatises

Subsequent to the arrangement of Aristotle's works by scholars at Alexandria in the first century CE, a number of his treatises were referred to as τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (ta meta ta physika; literally, "the [writings] after the Physics"). This is the origin of the title for collection of treatises now known as Aristotle's Metaphysics. Some have interpreted the expression "τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά" to imply that the subject of the work goes "beyond" that of Aristotle's Physics or that it is metatheoretical in relation to the Physics. But others believe that "τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά" referred simply to the work's place in the canonical arrangement of Aristotle's writings, which is at least as old as Andronicus of Rhodes or even Hermippus of Smyrna. Within the Aristotelian corpus itself, the metaphysical treatises are referred to as τὰ περὶ τῆς πρώτης φιλοσοφίας (literally, "the [writings] concerning first philosophy"); "first philosophy" was what Aristotle called the subjects of metaphysics. (He called the study of nature or natural philosophy "second philosophy" (Metaphysics 1037a15).)

Many scholars believe that Aristotle's works as we have them today are little more than lecture notes. Many of his works are extremely compressed and thus baffling to beginners. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Metaphysics — Avicenna said that he had read the Metaphysics of Aristotle forty times, but still did not understand it. Only later, after having read al-Farabi's, Purposes of the Metaphysics of Aristotle, did he understand Aristotle's book.

It is notoriously difficult to specify the date at which Aristotle wrote these treatises as a whole or even individually, especially because the Metaphysics is, in Jonathan Barnes' words, "a farrago, a hotch-potch", and more generally because of the difficulty of dating any of Aristotle's writings. The order in which the books were written is not known; their arrangement is due to later editors. In the manuscripts, books are referred to by Greek letters. For many scholars, it is customary to refer to the books by their letter names. Book 1 is called Alpha (Α); 2, little alpha (α); 3, Beta (Β); 4, Gamma (Γ); 5, Delta (Δ); 6, Epsilon (Ε); 7, Zeta (Ζ); 8, Eta (Η); 9, Theta (Θ); 10, Iota (Ι); 11, Kappa (Κ); 12, Lambda (Λ); 13, Mu (Μ); 14, Nu (Ν).

Summary

Books I–VI: Alpha, little Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon

• Book I or Alpha outlines "first philosophy", which is a knowledge of the first principles or causes of things. The wise are able to teach because they know the why of things, unlike those who only know that things are a certain way based on their memory and sensations. Because of their knowledge of first causes and principles, they are better fitted to command, rather than to obey. Book Alpha also surveys previous philosophies from Thales to Plato, especially their treatment of causes.
• Book II or "little alpha": The purpose of this chapter is to address a possible objection to Aristotle's account of how we understand first principles and thus acquire wisdom. Aristotle replies that the idea of an infinite causal series is absurd, and thus there must be a first cause which is not itself caused. This idea is developed later in book Lambda, where he develops an argument for the existence of God, whom he calls the prime mover.
• Book III or Beta lists the main problems or puzzles (aporia) of philosophy.
• Book IV or Gamma: Chapters 2 and 3 argue for its status as a subject in its own right. The rest is a defense of (a) what we now call the principle of contradiction, the principle that it is not possible for the same proposition to be (the case) and not to be (the case), and (b) what we now call the principle of excluded middle: tertium non datur — there cannot be an intermediary between contradictory statements.
• Book V or Delta ("philosophical lexicon") is a list of definitions of about thirty key terms such as cause, nature, one, and many.
• Book VI or Epsilon has two main concerns. The first concern is the hierarchy of the sciences: productive, practical or theoretical. Aristotle considers theoretical sciences superior because they study beings for their own sake—for example, Physics studies beings that can be moved—and do not have a target (Telos (τέλος), end or goal; τέλειος, complete or perfect) beyond themselves. He argues that the study of being qua being, or First Philosophy, is superior to all the other theoretical sciences because it is concerned the ultimate causes of all reality, not just the secondary causes of a part of reality. The second concern of Epsilon is the study of "accidents", those attributes that do not depend on (τέχνη) or exist by necessity, which Aristotle believes do not deserve to be studied as a science.

Book 7 of the Metaphysics: From a manuscript of William of Moerbeke's translation

Books VII–IX: Zeta, Eta, and Theta

Books Zeta, Eta, and Theta are generally considered the core of the Metaphysics.

Book Zeta (VII) begins with the remark that ‘Being’ has many senses. The purpose of philosophy is to understand being. The primary kind of being is what Aristotle calls substance (ousia). What substances are there, and are there any substances besides perceptible ones?

Aristotle considers four candidates for substance: (i) the ‘essence’ or ‘what it is to be’ of a thing (ii) the Platonic universal, (iii) the genus to which a substance belongs and (iv) the substratum or ‘matter’ which underlies all the properties of a thing.

• He dismisses the idea that matter can be substance, for if we eliminate everything that is a property from what can have the property, we are left with something that has no properties at all. Such 'ultimate matter' cannot be substance. Separability and 'this-ness' are fundamental to our concept of substance.
• Aristotle then describes own theory, that essence is the criterion of substantiality. The essence of something is what is included in a secundum se ('according to itself') account of a thing, i.e. which tells what a thing is by its very nature. You are not musical by your very nature. But you are a human by your very nature. Your essence is what is mentioned in the definition of you.
• Aristotle then considers, and dismisses, the idea that substance is the universal or the genus, criticizing the Platonic theory of Ideas.
• Aristotle argues that if genus and species are individual things, then different species of the same genus contain the genus as individual thing, which leads to absurdities. Moreover, individuals are incapable of definition.

Finally, he concludes book Zeta by arguing that substance is really a cause.

Book Eta consists of a summary of what has been said so far (i.e., in Book Zeta) about substance, and adds a few further details regarding difference and unity.

Book Theta sets out to define potentiality and actuality. Chapters 1–5 discuss potentiality (δύναμις, dunamis), the potential of something to change: potentiality is "a principle of change in another thing or in the thing itself qua other" (1046a9). In chapter 6 Aristotle turns to actuality. We can only know actuality through observation or "analogy;" thus "as that which builds is to that which is capable of building, so is that which is awake to that which is asleep...or that which is separated from matter to matter itself" (1048b1–4). Actuality is the completed state of something that had the potential to be completed. The relationship between actuality and potentiality can be thought of as the relationship between form and matter, but with the added aspect of time. Actuality and potentiality are diachronic (across time) distinctions, whereas form and matter are synchronic (at one time) distinctions.

Books X–XIV: Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, and Nu

• Book X or Iota: Discussion of unity, one and many, sameness and difference.
• Book XI or Kappa: Briefer versions of other chapters and of parts of the Physics.
• Book XII or Lambda: Further remarks on beings in general, first principles, and God or gods. This book includes Aristotle's famous description of the unmoved mover, "the most divine of things observed by us", as "the thinking of thinking".
• Books XIII and XIV, or Mu and Nu: Philosophy of mathematics, in particular how numbers exist.

Legacy

The Metaphysics is considered to be one of the greatest philosophical works. Its influence on the Greeks, the Muslim philosophers, Maimonides thence the scholastic philosophers and even writers such as Dante was immense.

With the Fall of Rome in the latter half of the 5th century, knowledge of, and access to Metaphysics was lost to the non-Greek speaking world. The translation of Metaphysics into Arabic in Baghdad in the 9th century led to a discovery of Aristotle's work in the Arabic speaking world. These Arabic translations derived from early Syriac translations from the original Greek (see Medieval Philosophy). The flourishing of Arabic Aristotelian scholarship reached its peak with the work of Ibn Rushd (Latinized: Averroes), whose extensive writings on Aristotle's work led to his later designation as "The Commentator" by future generations of scholars. Maimonides wrote the Guide to the Perplexed in the 12th century, to demonstrate the compatibility of Aristotelian science with Biblical revelation.

The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) facilitated the discovery and delivery of many original Greek manuscripts back to the European centers of learning. Finally, after over 700 years of obscurity, the work could finally be studied in the original and properly translated into Latin. One of the first Latin translations was made by William of Moerbeke. William's translations are literal, and were intended faithfully to reflect the Greek word order and style. These formed the basis of the commentaries of Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. They were also used by modern scholars for Greek editions, as William had access to Greek manuscripts that are now lost. Werner Jaeger lists William's translation in his edition of the Greek text in the Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford 1962).

Textual Criticism

In the 19th century, with the rise of textual criticism, the Metaphysics was examined anew. Critics, noting the wide variety of topics and the seemingly illogical order of the books, concluded that it was actually a collection of shorter works thrown together haphazardly. In the 20th century two general editions have been produced by W. D. Ross (1924) and by W. Jaeger (1957). Based on a careful study of the content and of the cross-references within them, W. D. Ross concluded that books A, B, Γ, E, Z, H, Θ, M, N, and I "form a more or less continuous work", while the remaining books α, Δ, Κ and Λ were inserted into their present locations by later editors. However, Ross cautions that books A, B, Γ, E, Z, H, Θ, M, N, and I — with or without the insertion of the others — do not constitute "a complete work". Werner Jaeger further maintained that the different books were taken from different periods of Aristotle's life. Everyman's Library, for their 1000th volume, published the Metaphysics in a rearranged order that was intended to make the work easier for readers.

Editing the Metaphysics has become an open issue in works and studies of the new millennium. New critical editions have been produced of the books Gamma (Myriam Hecquet, Aristote, Métaphysique Gamma, Peeters 2008), Alpha (Oliver Primavesi, Aristotle Metaphysics Alpha, OUP 2012), and Lambda (Silvia Fazzo, Il libro Lambda della Metafisica di Aristotele, "Elenchos", Bibliopolis 2012, and Stefan Alexandru, Aristotle's Metaphysics Lambda, Philosophia Antiqua, Brill 2014) books. Differences from their more-familiar 20th Century critical editions (W. D. Ross, 1924, W. Jaeger 1957) mainly depend on the stemma codicum of Aristotle's Metaphysics, of which different versions have been proposed since 1970 (Silvio Bernardinello, Eliminatio codicum della Metafisica di Aristotele, Padua, Antenore, 1970), most remarkably by Dieter Harlfinger in 1979 ("Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Metaphysik", in Pierre Aubenque (ed.), Essais sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, Paris, Vrin, 1979).

See also

• Categories
• On Generation and Corruption

References

• Greek text with commentary: Aristotle's Metaphysics. W. D. Ross. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924. Reprinted 1953 with corrections.
• Greek text: Aristotelis Metaphysica. Ed. Werner Jaeger. Oxford Classical Texts. Oxford University Press, 1957. ISBN 978-0-19-814513-4.
• Greek text with English: Metaphysics. Trans. Hugh Tredennick. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library 271, 287. Harvard U. Press, 1933–35. ISBN 0-674-99299-7, ISBN 0-674-99317-9.
• Aristotle's Metaphysics. Trans. Hippocrates Gorgias Apostle. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1966.
• Aristotle's Metaphysics. Translated by Sachs, Joe (2nd ed.). Santa Fe, N.M.: Green Lion Press. 2002. ISBN 1-888009-03-9..
• Aristotle's Metaphysics. Translated by Lawson-Tancred, Hugh. Penguin. 1998. ISBN 0140446192.
• Copleston, Frederick, S.J. A History of Philosophy: Volume I Greece and Rome (Parts I and II) New York: Image Books, 1962.
• Wolfgang Class: Aristotle's Metaphysics, A Philological Commentary:
  • Volume I: Textual Criticism, ISBN 978-3-9815841-2-7, Saldenburg 2014;
  • Volume II: The Composition of the Metaphysics, ISBN 978-3-9815841-3-4, Saldenburg 2015;
  • Volume III: Sources and Parallels, ISBN 978-3-9815841-6-5, Saldenburg 2017;
  • Volume IV: Reception and Criticism, ISBN 978-3-9820267-0-1, Saldenburg 2018.
• Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics (in Greek, Latin, and English). Vol. 3. Translated by Aquinas, Thomas; Rowan, John P. William of Moerbeke (1st ed.). Chicago: Henry Regnery Company (Library of Living Catholic Thought). 1961. OCLC 312731. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011 – via archive.org. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help); External link in |via= (help)CS1 maint: others (link) (rpt. Notre Dame, Ind.: Dumb Ox, 1995).

Further reading

• Ackrill, J. L., 1963, Aristotle: Categories and De Interpretatione, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• –––, 1965, “Aristotle’s Distinction between Energeia and Kinesis,” in Bambrough 1965, pp. 121–141.
• –––, 1972, “Aristotle’s Definitions of Psyche,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 73: 119–133.
• Addis, L., 1972, “Aristotle and the Independence of Substances,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 54: 699–708.
• Ainsworth, Thomas, 2018, “Priority in Being in Aristotle,” Philosophy Compass, 13: 1–10.
• Albritton, Rogers, 1957, “Forms of Particular Substances in Aristotle’s Metaphysics,” Journal of Philosophy, 54: 699–707.
• Alexandrou, S., 2014, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda: Annotated Critical Edition, Leiden: Brill.
• Allen, R. E., 1969, “Individual Properties in Aristotle’s Categories,” Phronesis, 14: 31–39.
• Anagnostopoulos, Andreas, 2011, “Senses of ‘Dunamis’ and the Structure of Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’ Theta,” Phronesis, 56: 388–425.
• Anagnostopoulos, Georgios (ed.), 2009, A Companion to Aristotle, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Angioni, Lucas, 2014, “Definition and Essence in Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’ vii 4,” Ancient Philosophy, 34: 75–100.
• Annas, J., 1974, “Individuals in Aristotle’s Categories: Two Queries,” Phronesis, 19: 146–152.
• Cohen, Sheldon M., 1981, “Proper Differentiae, the Unity of Definition, and Aristotle’s Essentialism,” The New Scholasticism, 55: 229–240.
• Cohen, Sheldon M., 1984, “Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Material Substrate,” Philosophical Review, 93: 171–194.
• Elders, L., 1972, Aristotle’s Theology: A Commentary on Book Λ of the Metaphysics, Assen: Van Gorcum.
• Engmann, J., 1973, “Aristotle’s Distinction Between Substance and Universal,” Phronesis, 18: 139–155.
• Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.) and Joseph Owens, 2007, Aristotle’s Gradations of being in Metaphysics E-Z, South Bend: St Augustine’s Press.
• Gill, Mary Louise, 1989, Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Green, Jerry, 2014, “The Underlying Argument of Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics Ζ.3’,” Phronesis, 59: 321–342.
• Grene, M., 1974, “Is Genus to Species as Matter to Form? Aristotle and Taxonomy,” Synthèse, 28: 51–69.
• Grice, H. P., 1988, “Aristotle on the Multiplicity of Being,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 69: 175–200.
• Halper, E., 1987, “A Solution to the Problem of Sensible Substance,” Journal of Philosophy, 84: 666–672.
• Kosman, L. A., 1984, “Substance, Being, and Energeia,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 2: 121–149
• Makin, Stephen, 2004, “What Does Aristotle Mean by Priority in Substance?” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 24: 209–238.
• Malcolm, John, 1993, “On the Endangered Species of the Metaphysics,” Ancient Philosophy, 13: 79–93.
• Modrak, Deborah K., 1979, “Forms, Types, and Tokens in Aristotle’s Metaphysics,” Journal of the History of Philosophy, 17: 371–381.
• Sharma, R. 2005. “‘What is Aristotle’s ‘Third Man’ Argument against the Forms?” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 28: 123–60.
• Wheeler, S., 1977, “The Theory of Matter from Metaphysics Ζ, Η, Θ,” International Studies in Philosophy, 13–22.
• White, Nicholas P., 1972, “The Origins of Aristotle’s Essentialism,” Review of Metaphysics, 26: 57–85.
• Yu, Jiyuan, 1997, “Two Conceptions of Hylomorphism in Metaphysics ΖΗΘ,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 15: 119–45.

External links

• Available bundled with Organon and other works – can be downloaded as .epub, .mobi and other formats.
• English translation and original Greek at Perseus. Translation by Hugh Tredennick from the Loeb Classical Library.
• English translation by W. D. Ross at MIT's Internet Classics Archive.
• Averroes' commentary on the Metaphysics, in Latin, together with the 'old' (Arabic) and new translation based on William of Moerbeke at Gallica.
• Aristotle: Metaphysics entry by Joe Sachs in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Cohen, S. Marc. "Aristotle's Metaphysics". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• A good summary of scholarly comments at: Theory and History of Ontology
• Metaphysics public domain audiobook at LibriVox