Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Aristotle and the Metaphysics

by Politis,Vasilis

• ISBN13: 9780415251471
• ISBN10: 0415251478
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Aristotles' 'Metaphysics' is one of the most important texts in Ancient Philosophy. This GuideBook looks at the Metaphysics thematically and takes the student through the main arguments found in the text. The book introduces and assesses Aristotle's life and the background to the Metaphysics, the ideas and text of the Metaphysics and Aristotle's philosophical legacy.

Author Biography

Vasilis Politis is lecturer of philosophy at Trinity College Dublin.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	ix
1 Aristotle's Metaphysics	1	(22)
1 What is the Metaphysics About? The Question, 'What is Being?'	1	(4)
2 Sources of the Question, 'What is Being?'	5	(5)
3 A Central Distinction in the Metaphysics: Being in General versus Primary Being (prote ousia)	10	(2)
4 Three Candidates for Primary Being: The Particular; the Universal; and the Essence	12	(4)
5 Does Aristotle Assume Essentialism in the Metaphysics?	16	(3)
6 The Structure and Unity of the Metaphysics	19	(2)
7 About this Companion to the Metaphysics	21	(2)
2 Metaphysics as the Science of the Ultimate Explanations of All Things (Book I)	23	(41)
1 Metaphysics as the Science of the Ultimate Explanations and Principles of All Things	23	(8)
2 How Explanatory Knowledge Differs from Sense Perception and Experience	31	(8)
3 Aristotle's General Conception of Explanations and Explanatory Knowledge	39	(11)
i The search for explanations and what it is based on	39	(3)
ii The nature and requirements of explanations	42	(6)
iii The relation of metaphysics to the other sciences	48	(2)
4 The Theory of the Four Basic Explanations and Causes of Changing Things	50	(14)
i A summary of the theory	50	(5)
ii Aristotle's conception of matter as potentiality	55	(6)
iii Aristotle's review of his predecessors regarding the four basic causes	61	(3)
3 Aristotle's Method in Metaphysics (Book III)	64	(26)
1 Aristotle's Method of Searching in Metaphysics: The Method Based on Aporiai	64	(11)
2 The Source of the Aporiai in Metaphysics	75	(4)
3 The List of Aporiai and How they Structure the Metaphysics	79	(4)
4 A Brief Review of the Fifteen Aporiai	83	(7)
4 Metaphysics as the Science of Being Qua Being. Primary Being versus Non-Primary Being (Books IV. 1-2 and VI. 1)	90	(32)
1 Metaphysics as the Science of Being Qua Being	90	(4)
2 The Problem of How There Can Be a Science of Being Qua Being; and the Solution in Terms of the Distinction Between Primary Being and Non-primary Being	94	(9)
3 How Aristotle Introduces the Distinction Between Primary Being and Non-primary Being	103	(7)
4 Primary Being as the Ultimate Subject of Predication: The Theory of the Categories	110	(8)
5 Is Metaphysics About All Things, About Primary Being, Or About God?	118	(4)
5 The Defence of the Principle of Non-Contradiction (Book IV. 3-6, esp. 3-4)	122	(34)
1 Aristotle's Characterization of the Principle of Non-contradiction (PNC)	122	(4)
2 Aristotle's Overall Aim in Considering PNC	126	(2)
3 Why PNC Cannot Itself be Demonstrated	128	(4)
4 Aristotle's Conception of PNC as a Metaphysical Principle	132	(3)
5 Is PNC Transcendental, i.e. is it True of Things Because it is True of Thought?	135	(3)
6 How Can One Deny PNC?	138	(8)
7 The Consequences of Denying PNC: It is Impossible to Think and Speak About Things	146	(4)
8 The Defence of PNC and the Defence of the View That Things Have an Essence	150	(3)
9 Does Aristotle Succeed in Showing That There Are No True Contradictions?	153	(3)
6 The Response to Phenomenalism and Relativism (Book IV. 5-6)	156	(32)
1 How Phenomenalism and Relativism Present a Challenge to Aristotle's Defence of the Principle of Non-contradiction Conceived as a Metaphysical Principle	156	(5)
2 The Characterization of Phenomenalism and Relativism	161	(4)
3 The Aim of Considering Phenomenalism and Relativism	165	(3)
4 The Relation Between Phenomenalism, Relativism, and the Denial of PNC	168	(13)
i General	168	(3)
ii Tracing the source of phenomenalism and of the denial of PNC	171	(7)
iii A central consequence of phenomenalism and the denial of PNC: relativism	178	(3)
5 How Far Does Aristotle Succeed in Defending PNC Conceived as a Metaphysical Principle?	181	(7)
7 The Search for Primary Being (Book VII)	188	(69)
1 The Question at the Centre of the Metaphysics: 'What is Primary Being?' (Prote Ousia, Often Simply Ousia) (VII. 1-2)	188	(5)
2 Initial Suggestions and Candidates for What Primary Being May Turn Out to be (VII. 1)	193	(4)
3 Three Main Candidates for Primary Being: The Ultimate Subject of Predication; the Universals; and the Essence (VII. 3)	197	(1)
4 Primary Being and Separation (Ontological Independence) (VII. 1)	198	(5)
5 Aristotle's Answer: Primary Being is the Essence of Each Thing	203	(54)
i A summary of Aristotle's account of primary being	203	(4)
ii Primary being is not simply the ultimate subject of predication (VII. 3)	207	(6)
iii What in general is the essence of each thing, and what things have an essence? (VII. 4-5)	213	(4)
iv Primary being with regard to each thing is the essence of that thing (VII. 1, 6 and 17)	217	(4)
v Primary being with regard to each thing is both (1) the essence of that thing and (2) the ultimate subject of predication with regard to that thing (VII. 6)	221	(9)
vi Primary being is changeless being (VII. 7-9)	230	(7)
vii Primary being with regard to each changing thing is its essence and its form (VII. 10-12)	237	(4)
viii No universal is a primary being (VII. 13-16)	241	(10)
ix Is the essence and the form of each particular thing a universal, a particular, or both?	251	(3)
x Primary being and the primary object of knowledge	254	(3)
8 The Ultimate Cause of Change: God (Book XII)	257	(38)
1 The Project of Book XII and its Place in the Metaphysics	257	(5)
2 Changing, Changeless, and Transcendent Things	262	(4)
3 The Ultimate Cause of Change, and the Outermost Heaven	266	(3)
4 The Argument for the Everlasting, Uniform, Circular Motion of the Outermost Heaven	269	(3)
5 The Argument for the Ultimate Cause of Change	272	(3)
6 The Causation Distinctive of the Ultimate Cause of Change	275	(3)
7 The Ultimate Cause of Change as the Object of Thought and Desire of the Cosmos	278	(3)
8 The Activity of the Ultimate Cause of Change: Thinking	281	(7)
9 The Ultimate Cause of Change, and the Rational Order of the Cosmos	288	(2)
10 Why Transcendence?	290	(2)
11 Is Aristotle's God Relevant to the Basic Question of Metaphysics: 'What is it for Something, Anything, to Be?'?	292	(3)
9 The Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms	295	(36)
1 Plato's and Aristotle's Shared Project: The Theory of Essence	295	(8)
2 Central Differences Between Plato's and Aristotle's Theories of Essence	303	(4)
3 Aristotle's Diagnosis of the Source of Plato's Theory of Essences as Separate Forms	307	(6)
4 The issue of Separation, and Different Types of Separation	313	(5)
5 Aristotle's Criticism, Based on his Own Theory of Essence	318	(5)
6 Aristotle's Criticism, Based on Plato's Theory of Essence: The Third Man Argument	323	(6)
7 Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Separate Forms, and His Own Separate God	329	(2)
Conclusion	331	(2)
FURTHER READING	333	(3)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	336	(5)
INDEX	341