Aristotle

The Metaphysics: First Principles of Philosophy

(Books A and L)

  1. Books A: Chapters 1 and 2 - The Subject of Metaphysics

    1. Humans are rational animals -

      1. Sensation

      2. Memory

      3. Intelligence -

        1. Practical ("experience") - knowledge of the particular

        2. Theoretical ("science" [episteme]) - knowledge of the universal

    2. Wisdom is knowledge of the causes and principles of what is

    Note: According to Aristotle, wisdom can only emerge among those who have leisure. (981b20)

    1. Metaphysics is not utilitarian (982b10ff)

  2. Book A: Chapters 3 - 10 - Why all other accounts of Metaphysics are wrong

    1. Wisdom requires knowledge of the "original cause" of things -

      1. Essence - the Formal Cause

      2. Substratum - the Material Cause

      3. Agency - The Efficient Cause

      4. Goal - The Final Cause ("that for the sake of which")

    2. All previous accounts of causation have failed -

      1. The Ionians

      2. The Pluralists

      3. The Materialists

      4. The Pythagoreans

      5. The Platonists

  3. Books L: Change and God -

    1. Three kinds of "substance" -

      1. Sensible (i.e., matter) -

        1. perishable -

          1. earth
          2. water
          3. air
          4. fire

        2. eternal - aether

      2. Immovable (non-sensible, eternal) - the divine

    2. The Doctrine of Change -

      1. Matter

      2. Form

      3. Prime-matter (the tercium quid or "third thing")

    3. Motion and the Unmoved Mover (the first Cosmological Argument)

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