Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Substance, Nature, Cause

Posted on Mar 13, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Substance

There are two classes of substances: primary substances and secondary substances.

  • Primary Substance: Individual, specific beings. These are entities that are “neither a predicate nor subjective.” They possess essence (the qualities that make them what they are) and subsistence (independent existence). They are classified into:
    • Natural (subject to becoming, sublunary substances)
    • Supernatural (supralunar)
  • Secondary Substance: The essence of the primary substance; that is, the form. They possess essence (a set of qualities) but not subsistence.

Nature

Aristotle distinguishes between supernatural and natural beings:

  1. Supernatural Beings: Reside in the supralunar world, are permanent, and are formed by a fifth element.
  2. Natural Beings: Located in the sublunary world and are subject to becoming. Unlike artificial beings, they have within themselves the principle of motion or rest.

To explain the evolution of natural beings, Aristotle proposes four theories:

  • Hylomorphism theory
  • Theory of the Four Causes
  • Act and Potency theory
  • Theory of change

With these, he explains that becoming does not involve a step from non-being to being or vice versa, as Parmenides had said, but rather the actualization of what was in potentiality.

Cause

The emergence of a natural being involves four causes; two of them are intrinsic, and two are extrinsic:

  • Intrinsic Causes:
    • Material Cause: The underlying matter.
    • Formal Cause: The essence of each being; what makes that being what it is.
  • Extrinsic Causes:
    • Efficient Cause: That which triggers the change.
    • Final Cause: The purpose or end that drives the process.

Act and Potency

For Aristotle, between being in act and non-being (nothingness), there is a middle way: not in action but able to become; that is, potentiality.

Becoming is not, as Parmenides claimed, an irrational and impossible step from non-being to being, but rather the actualization of what was in potentiality. In any substantial change, one thing disappears (the old form), something remains (the subject), and something new appears (the new form). The new substance does not arise out of nothing but existed potentially.

Social Being

  • People who live alone are either gods or animals. Man is by nature a social animal and can only develop as a man within society.
  • Man is also a political animal, as he can only fulfill his rational essence through his relationship with other citizens in the polis.
  • The perfection of man as a rational, and therefore moral, being can only be achieved in the polis.
  • Initially, the individual, family, and village predate the polis, but the polis itself is metaphysically prior to the individual, family, and village.

Happiness

  • Aristotle argues that since there are many people and activities, there will be many goods, as each being and each activity has its own purpose and, therefore, its own good. There is a correlation between being, order, and good.
  • In the case of men, goods are classified into three groups:
    • Goods that are always sought to achieve other goods (e.g., money).
    • Goods that are sought partly for themselves and partly for other goods (e.g., health).
    • Goods that are sought only for themselves (e.g., Happiness). This is the supreme good.
  • Happiness is the development and rational perfection of function. It consists of living according to reason (moral virtues) and engaging in intellectual knowledge (intellectual virtue), throughout one’s life.