Aristotle investigates the nature of being, substance, causation, and the divine. Fourteen books that range from logic to theology. The title means simply "after the Physics" — but the questions are the deepest in philosophy.
Start ReadingAll men desire to know. Aristotle surveys previous philosophers — from Thales to Plato — and their attempts to explain first causes and principles.
Aporiai — the puzzles of metaphysics. Aristotle lays out the fundamental problems that philosophy must solve. Is there one science of all things or many?
The study of being qua being. There is a science that studies what is, simply in virtue of the fact that it is. This is 'first philosophy'.
The multiple senses of 'being'. Things are said to 'be' in many ways. Aristotle catalogues them and looks for underlying unity.
The principles of demonstration. The law of non-contradiction is the firmest of all principles. Aristotle defends it against those who deny it.
Further discussion of being, truth, and the relationship between potentiality and actuality.
Substance (ousia) is the primary category of being. What is substance? Aristotle examines matter, form, and the composite of the two.
Form, essence, and definition. What makes something the thing that it is? Aristotle argues that form, not matter, is the primary substance.
Potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (energeia). The distinction is fundamental to understanding change, generation, and the hierarchy of being.
Unity and plurality. In what sense are things one? The relationship between the one and the many, and between genus and species.
A philosophical lexicon. Aristotle defines key terms: cause, element, nature, necessity, one, being, substance, same, other, prior, posterior, potency, quantity, quality.
The unmoved mover. There must be an eternal, unchanging substance that causes all motion without itself being moved. This is the divine — 'thought thinking thought'.
Criticism of the Platonic Forms. Mathematical objects are not substances. The theory of Forms cannot explain generation, change, or the particularity of things.
Further criticism of the theory of numbers and Forms. Aristotle's final arguments against Platonic metaphysics.