Metaphysics (Aristotle)
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Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and not because of any special qualities it has. Also covered are different kinds of causation, form and matter, the existence of mathematical objects, and God.
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[edit] Title, date, and the arrangement of the treatises
When Aristotle's works were assembled at Alexandria in the first century CE, a number of treatises were labeled, τὰ μετὰ τὰ φύσικα (literally, "the [books] after the [lectures on] physics"). While the placing of the treatises "after Physics" (Physics being another of Aristotle's works) has been taken as indicative of its content, the name appears to have originally referred to its place in the line of Aristotle's writings--that is, on a shelf: something like an ancient Dewey decimal number. It was probably written while Aristotle was teaching at the Lyceum, i.e. between 336 and 323 B.C.
In the manuscripts, books are referred to by Greek letters. The second book was given the title "little alpha," apparently because it appears to have nothing to do with the other books (and, very early, it was supposed not to have been written by Aristotle) or, although this is less likely, because of its shortness. This, then, disrupts the correspondence of letters to numbers, as book 2 is little alpha, book 3 is beta, and so on. For many scholars, it is customary to refer to the books by their letter names. Thus 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).
[edit] Summary
Book Alpha Outlines "first philosophy", which is a knowledge of the first principles or causes of things. At the very beginning of book Alpha, Aristotle explores the nature of wisdom by asking what the characteristics are of those who are viewed as wise. He observes that the wise are those who know all things, but not in detail, that is, that their knowledge is of a general nature. They know things that are difficult, because wisdom requires reasoning that goes beyond mere sense experience. Sense experience gives knowledge of particulars, whereas wisdom is knowledge of universals. 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. The subject matter of metaphysics therefore is the nature of being qua being. The nature of Being is the most general concept that is unique compared with the concepts of all of the other sciences, in so far as there is no higher genus under which it can be subsumed. Book Alpha also surveys previous philosophies from Thales to Plato, especially their treatment of causes. Little alpha: Further remarks on how to search for truth. Beta: A listing of metaphysical puzzles (aporiai), proposed for consideration but not definitively answered; e.g., does anything exist apart from individual things? Gamma: Starts on "the science of being qua being", in particular the principle of non-contradiction. Delta ("philosophical lexicon"): Definitions of about fifty key terms such as cause, nature, one, and many. Epsilon: further remarks on the science of being qua being and on truth.
Zeta, Eta, Theta: Often considered the core of the Metaphysics, these books form a wide-ranging discussion of ousia (substance or thinghood): its identification, its relation to matter and form, to actuality and potentiality, to change and coming-to-be. Iota: Discussion of unity, one and many, sameness and difference. Kappa: Briefer versions of other chapters and of parts of the Physics. 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". Mu and Nu: Philosophy of mathematics, in particular how numbers exist.
[edit] Style
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 baffling to beginners. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Metaphysics. Avicenna reportedly said that he read the work forty times without understanding it.
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. 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—with what success one can only guess.
Nevertheless, the work has not only influenced many thinkers but remains suggestive or even inspiring to students of philosophy.
[edit] An Overview
Universal science or first philosophy treats of "being qua being" that is, what is basic to all science before one adds the particular details of any one science. This includes topics like causality, substance, species and elements. It also includes topics like relationship, interaction, finitude and a theoretically boundless infinity.
Metaphysics as a discipline was a central part of academic inquiry and scholarly education even before the age of Aristotle. Long considered "the Queen of Sciences," its issues were considered no less important than the other main formal subjects of physical science, medicine, mathematics, poetics and music. Since the Age of Reason, problems that were not originally considered metaphysical have been added to metaphysics. Other problems that were considered metaphysical problems for centuries are now typically relegated to their own separate subheadings in philosophy, such as philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. In some cases subjects of metaphysical research have been found to be entirely physical and natural, thus making them part of physics.
Aristotle himself described his subject matter in a variety of ways: as ‘first philosophy’, or ‘the study of being qua being’, or ‘wisdom’, or ‘theology’. Aristotle says that “any discipline deserving the name sophia (wisdom) must describe the aitia (first causes) and the archai (principles)” (Metaphysics 981b28) of things, and it is these causes and principles that he proposes to study in this work. It is his customary practice to begin an inquiry by reviewing the opinions previously held by others, and that is what he does here, as Book A continues with a history of the thought of his predecessors about causes and principles.
These causes and principles are clearly the subject matter of what he calls ‘first philosophy’. But this does not mean the branch of philosophy that should be studied first. Rather, it concerns issues that are in some sense the most fundamental or at the highest level of generality. Aristotle distinguished between things that are “better known to us” and things that are “better known in themselves,” and maintained that we should begin our study of a given topic with things better known to us and arrive ultimately at an understanding of things better known in themselves. The principles studied by ‘first philosophy’ may seem very general and abstract, but they are, according to Aristotle, better known in themselves, however remote they may seem from the world of ordinary experience. Still, since they are to be studied only by one who has already studied nature (which is the subject matter of the Physics), they are quite appropriately described as coming “after the Physics.”
The idea of necessity is that any necessary fact is true across all possible worlds; that is, we could not imagine it to be otherwise. A possible fact is one that is true in some possible world, even if not in the actual world. For example, it is possible that cats could have had two tails, or that any particular apple could have not existed. By contrast, certain truths seem necessary, such as analytic truths, i.e. ‘all cats meow’. The particular example of analytic truth being necessary is not universally held among philosophers. A less controversial view might be that self-identity is necessary, as it seems fundamentally incoherent to claim that for any x, it is not identical to itself. Aristotle describes the principle of contradiction, "It is impossible that the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing . . . This is the most certain of all principles . . . Wherefore they who demonstrate refer to this as an ultimate opinion. For it is by nature the source of all the other axioms."
A more distinctive view is that metaphysical statements are not meaningless statements, but rather that they are generally not fallible, testable or provable statements. That is to say, there is no valid set of empirical observations nor a valid set of logical arguments, which could definitively prove metaphysical statements to be true or false. Hence, a metaphysical statement usually implies a belief about the world or about the universe, which may seem reasonable but is ultimately not empirically verifiable. That belief could be changed in a non-arbitrary way, based on experience or argument, yet there exists no evidence or argument so compelling that it could rationally force a change in that belief, in the sense of definitely proving it false.
[edit] References
- 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 G. Apostle. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1966.
- Aristotle's Metaphysics. Trans. Joe Sachs. 2nd ed. Santa Fe, N.M.: Green Lion, 2002. ISBN 1-888009-03-9.
- Thomas Aquinas. Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Trans. John P. Rowan. 1961; rpt. Notre Dame, Ind.: Dumb Ox, 1995.
- Copleston, Frderick S.J. A History of Philosophy: Volume I Greece & Rome (Parts I & II) New York: Image Books, 1962.
