The Structure of Being in Aristotle's Metaphysics

by Yu, Jiyuan

• ISBN13: 9781402015373
• ISBN10: 1402015372
• eBook ISBN(s): 9789401000550
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This book develops a new interpretation of Aristotle's Metaphysics. By exploring the significance of the long ignored distinction between being with regard to categories and being with regard to potentiality and actuality, the author presents that Aristotle's science of being has two distinct aspects: an investigation of the basic constituents of reality in terms of categories, predication, and definition, and an investigation which deals with change, process, and order of the world. The author argues that corresponding to the distinction between these two kinds of being, the central books of the Metaphysics contain not one, but two theories of substance, depending on whether the matter/form relation is associated with the potentiality/actuality relation. Together, these two studies of being and substance provide a complete picture of Aristotle's world as both a static and a dynamic reality.The book will be of interest to all those who wish to gain a better understanding of Aristotle's Metaphysics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	xiii
Per se being and Potential/actual Being	1	(20)
Per se being	1	(8)
Potential/actual being	9	(9)
The scope of the focal structure of being	18	(3)
From Being to Substance	21	(28)
The focal connection of per se beings	22	(14)
Potential/actual being and substance	36	(6)
The science of being	42	(7)
Hylomorphism and Its Two Approaches	49	(34)
The composition of substance	51	(6)
Two hylomorphic approaches	57	(8)
The new start of Metaphysics vii.17	65	(11)
Re-grouping the central books	76	(7)
Subject, Form, and Essence	83	(30)
Substance and subject	85	(7)
Form and subject	92	(4)
Substance and essence	96	(9)
The identity of form and essence	105	(8)
Form: Tode ti and Toionde	113	(42)
Primary reality and knowledge	115	(3)
Separation, tode ti, and toionde	118	(4)
Tode ti, particularity, and individuality	122	(5)
Separation	127	(5)
Tode ti and definition	132	(5)
Form as toionde	137	(8)
The universal and toionde	145	(5)
The ending of Metaphysics vii	150	(5)
Substantial Potentiality and Actuality	155	(26)
Kinesis and energeia	156	(6)
Substantial generation	162	(7)
Substantial activity	169	(7)
Substantial unity	176	(5)
Actuality and the Prime Mover	181	(20)
From actual form to the Prime Mover	181	(7)
The Prime Mover and eternity	188	(9)
The Prime Mover and the world order	197	(4)
The Unity of Aristotle's Metaphysics	201	(10)
Bibliography	211	(12)
Index of Passages	223	(8)
Name Index	231	(4)
Subject Index	235