User:Rnajera/aristotle/meta

Book Alpha
Book Alpha, or Book I, is an introduction to the science of metaphysics. It is one of the large books of the Metaphysics' and is composed of 10 chapters.

The first 2 chapters deal with the science itself. In Chapter 1 Aristotle explores the notion of wisdom and devises a scale of skills and abilities that lead up to it. The first step, common to animals and men, is the senses, of which it is usually that sight is the best one. Next up is memory, which all humans and some animals have. It is said that an animal with memory is better (as far as wisdom is concerned) that an animal without memory. The third step is experience, which is something only humans have. This is an ability concerning particular things, namely the things we store in memory. A man can use experience for practical purposes and turn that experience into an art. However, we don't call a man of experience wise unless he knows what causes his experience to work. Knowledge is thus the last step in the scale and it's the mark of the wise. Aristotle gives the example of the physician. A man can heal Socrates because he has experience and somehow is aware that some medicine heals Socrates's ailment. A wise man not only can heal Socrates, but also knows why the medicine works. The science of wisdom is therefore the science that deal with the 'why' of things, independently of practical considerations.

In chapter 2 Aristotle talks first about how this science, since it is wisdom, should be knowledge of all things and should be superior. It is, more importantly, knowledge of first principles and causes, which must be as few as possible, must be what explains everything else and thus the furthest removed from the senses. Aristotle then says that this science, since it does not deal with practical purposes, is the mark of a free man for a free man is the only one that is not subject to pragmatical considerations all the time and can devote himself to know for knowledge's sake. Since it is a science appropriate for free beings, it is the science that the gods, the freest of beings, would have. This science, the wise science (metaphysics) is thus a divine science.

Chapter 3 starts with Aristotle's statement of the four different kinds of causes: essential or substantial (formal), material, the principle of change or motion (efficient) and that for the sake of which or the good (final). The rest of chapter 3 and up to chapter 7 is devoted to the exposition and critique of previous views on the causes. In chapter 3 Aristotle considers philosophers with material principles (Thales, Anaxagoras, etc), talks about how those who would show some notion of efficient cause and starts considering the good. Chapter 4 starts with philosophers that deal with some sort of final cause as principle (strife, the good) and those with alternative notions such as being and non-being. Chapter 5 is about Pythagoreans and those who say the One is the principle and chapter 6 is about Plato and theory of Forms. Chapter 7 sums up the review concluding that no previous philosophers was able to capture the notion of the 4 different causes and thus that dealing with the 4 different causes is the way to go.

Chapters 8 and are another exploration and critique of previous philosopher, but now with respect to first principles. Chapter 8 is about philosophers with one or more principles, and about the problems of Pythagoreans who say the numbers are the principle. The latter is problematic because numbers do not seem to deal well with material things. Chapter 9 is an extended critique of Plato's theory of forms.

Chapter 10 is a short summary of the book.