Metaphysics Aristotle: Encyclopedia II - Metaphysics Aristotle - Summary

Metaphysics Aristotle - Summary

Book Alpha: Outlines "first philosophy", a knowledge of the first principles or causes of things. Historical survey of 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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Summary", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki