Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Understanding First Principles
Aristotle (4th century BC) was born in Stagira, not Athens. Although a disciple of Plato, he developed an opposing theory. He was a teacher of Alexander the Great. Reflection did not begin with Aristotle’s metaphysics; it was born with reasoning. It seeks to know why.
Understanding Metaphysics
Metaphysics, also called First Philosophy (the first name given to it), examines the first causes and senses. Later, it was called metaphysics since it goes beyond physics, beyond nature. Primitive people responded to the existence of reality through myths, but the first philosophers sought to respond to the real existence of everything through archê (all living things). All sciences study specific causes and consequences; metaphysics studies the causes and principles of all beings.
Characteristics of Metaphysics
- Difficult: It goes beyond the senses; it requires effort to achieve it.
- It is the basis of all sciences.
- It studies all entities, and all sciences depend on it.
- There is a hierarchy.
- It is the most scientific and most philosophical.
- Universal, it is based on the fundamental principles of other sciences.
- It is disinterested; it is only intended for knowledge and knowing. There is no other benefit.
- It studies the individual or general order.
- The good and the end are some of the reasons considered by Aristotle. Everything is organized according to purpose.
- It seeks to know the real: that which surrounds us, and the why of what makes up our reality.
- Divine: Only God has knowledge of the principles; it is required to approach the divine. Man can philosophize about this, but only God has knowledge of the causes.
Analysis of Aristotle’s Metaphysics
Metaphysics is given simply by the desire to know and learn, not for practical reasons. It is given in a selfless, pure way. It is “that which is most scientific” and most philosophical.
Aristotle says that knowing the principles and causes gives us precise knowledge. This is the Aristotelian idea of science: scientific knowledge exists if you know the principles and causes.
Metaphysics as the “Sovereign Science”
The “sovereign science” (metaphysics) is that which knows the purpose for which things occur: the individual or the good order (for each body) or the general (all nature). That end is not independent of the goals of other entities. It helps or contributes. For example, a bee helps pollination and also fulfills its own end, which is to get food.
The End as a Cause
One reason is the end. “It is imperative that theoretical science is the philosophy of first principles and causes; a cause is a good or right end.”
Theos (God) as a Rational Principle
In the third paragraph on page 2, he speaks of Theos (God), but in Greece in the fourth century BC, they were polytheists. Therefore, we can conclude that he refers to God as a rational principle, not a subject of faith. God is seen as an idea of superiority in nature. It is held in the same paragraph that metaphysics is a divine science because it is the heritage of God; only God, as a superior body, can have that full knowledge of the causes and principles.
Remember that one of the questions will be the characteristics of metaphysics according to Aristotle. Study it well.