PHIL 2510: Aristotle's Metaphysics

META TA PHYSIKA: "[the books] next after [or beyond?] the physics
the topics: substance or "being" (OUSIA) and its modifications
four names for the science of being:
- wisdom
- first philosophy
- the science of "being qua ('as') being"
  this is what later comes to be called &qot;ontology" the science (LOGOS of being (CODE>ON.) Ontology forms eventually one of the two great branches of metaphysics or first philosophy. The other branch is "epistemology:" the study of what can be known. Ontology investigates what kinds of things (beings) there are.
- theology
the meanings of being (substance, OUSIA)
- primary substance: the concrete individual: (in)formed matter
- secondary substance: genus & species
- modifications of substance (attributes)
Metaphysics and the problem of motion:
Everlasting motion must have a cause itself unmoved. Hence the stars and fixed planets must have their own sources of motion. Their motion is eternal; they are divine. They are drawn into motion by something whose pure activity (ENERGEIA) is essential active. What can meet this requirement? Pure Thought. Thought at one with the object of thought; complete in itself. God is pure self-thinking thought. Thought thinking itself. Remember: there is no hint of personality in this concept of god.