ΦTHALASSAJournal of Philosophy
Books
Thalassa Editions

Metaphysics

Aristotle

Aristotelianism · Advanced

Dense and difficult, it established the vocabulary by which medieval and later European philosophy asked what reality most fundamentally is.

Aristotle · first circulated 4th century BCE

Main ideas

  • Being investigated as being, beyond any single science.
  • Substance, form, matter and cause used to explain change and persistence.
  • The unmoved mover introduced as an object of thought and final explanation.

Important themes

BeingSubstanceCause

Reading context

A collection of lectures gathered under a title that means only the books placed after the Physics. It asks what it is for something to be at all, and invents much of the vocabulary later philosophy argues in.

How to approach it

Book 1 surveys earlier thinkers and is the friendliest entry. Books 7 and 12 are the substance and are very hard. A commentary is not optional here.