Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Core Concepts & Ethical Framework
Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Fundamental Divisions
Aristotle’s Metaphysics is fundamentally structured around three key divisions: the transcendental order, the categorical order, and theology.
The Transcendental Order
The transcendental order describes the universal predicates that different beings possess:
- First Substance: These are the individual, independent things.
- Unity: A being ceases to be itself if divided or added to.
- Essence: That which cannot fail to be what it is. The first substance possesses essential features that make it unmistakable.
- Accident (or Event): That which inheres in a given substance but is not essential to its being.
- Truth: The correspondence between what things are and our understanding of them.
The Categorical Order
The categorical order describes the different ways in which substances can be predicated or spoken of. Individuals form classes, and within these classes, they differ from one another. These individuals are subject to change, which Aristotle explains through the concepts of act and potency.
Act, Potency, and the Nature of Change
Change occurs when a being actualizes its inherent potencies. Underlying every change are Aristotle’s four causes:
- Efficient Cause: That which triggers or initiates the change.
- Material Cause: That out of which the individual changes or is composed.
- Formal Cause: That which defines the essence and limits how far an individual can change while remaining what it is.
- Final Cause: The purpose or end for which the change occurs.
Change can be either substantial, where an individual undergoes such a drastic transformation that it becomes a different kind of being and is placed in another group, or accidental, where the change affects the individual without altering its fundamental species.
The Unmoved Mover and Pure Act
While change is a constant, Aristotle posits that nothing can simultaneously be in both act and potency regarding the same attribute. The ultimate source of all change, the Efficient Cause, is the First Mover, which itself remains unchanged because it possesses no unactualized potencies. It is pure act.
The Final Cause of all change is the actualization of all potencies, attracted to the perfection of God (or the Prime Mover). This divine entity’s sole activity is thought thinking itself (noesis noeseos); it has all powers in act, is a pure act, an unmoved mover, and is entirely immaterial.
Aristotelian Epistemology: Knowing What Things Are
For Aristotle, to know what things are is to understand individuals. We truly know an individual when we grasp its form, which means understanding the universal essence present within its particular manifestations.
Inductive Abstraction: From Particular to Universal
This process of acquiring knowledge is called inductive abstraction and involves several steps:
- Through our senses, we perceive particular images or objects.
- These sensory impressions appear in our imagination, where they are substantially maintained.
- Memory allows us to retain these images and compare them with others we already possess, identifying commonalities (forming a “phantasm” or mental image).
- Finally, the intellect abstracts from the particular phantasm, purging itself of sensory details to grasp the universal essence.
Deductive Procedure: From Universal to Particular
The reverse process, moving from the universal to the particular, is known as the deductive procedure. This involves linking universal claims to specific instances, allowing us to understand and find particular truths based on our acquired universal knowledge.
Aristotelian Ethics: The Pursuit of Happiness
The ultimate final cause for the development of the first substance, particularly human beings, is ethics, which aims at achieving happiness (eudaimonia).
Achieving Eudaimonia: Actualizing Potencies
Happiness is attained when an individual fully actualizes all their inherent powers and acts, striving to become the best they can be. A truly happy life is dedicated to this pursuit of excellence.
Honor, in this context, is a natural consequence of societal recognition for our virtuous actions, making us worthy of such accolades.
Virtue and the Polis
When we become the best we can be, we are virtuous, acting consistently with what is necessary and right.
For Aristotle, a happy life, beyond the actualization of individual powers, is fundamentally achieved within the polis (city-state). It is within this community that human beings relate to one another, making the polis a necessary prerequisite for individual well-being and flourishing.