OpenGrad

Unit 3: Aristotle I — Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy

Duration

Weeks 9-12

Central Questions

  • What does it mean for something to be?
  • What are the fundamental categories of being?
  • What is substance, and why is it primary?
  • How do we explain change and causation?
  • What is the relationship between form and matter?

Overview

Aristotle was Plato's student for twenty years. He then spent the rest of his life developing a systematic philosophy that both builds on and fundamentally departs from Plato's.

Where Plato separates the forms from the sensible world, Aristotle brings them down to earth: form is always the form of something, embodied in matter. Where Plato distrusts the senses, Aristotle begins inquiry with careful observation. Where Plato writes evocative dialogues, Aristotle writes systematic treatises (or lecture notes—the texts we have are often dense and compressed).

This unit covers Aristotle's Categories and selections from the Metaphysics and Physics. The goal is to understand Aristotle's fundamental ontology: what kinds of things exist, what makes something the thing it is, and how change is possible.

This is difficult material. Aristotle's terminology is technical and precise. Go slowly, and don't expect full comprehension on first reading.

Readings

Week 9: Categories and Basic Ontology

Categories (complete, ~30 pages)

  • The ten categories: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, passion
  • Primary and secondary substance
  • The said-of and present-in distinctions
  • Individual substances as fundamental

Reading time: ~5-6 hours (this is dense; multiple readings recommended)

Writing assignment (due end of Week 9):

500 words on primary substance (Categories 2a11-2b6):

Aristotle claims that primary substances (individual things like "this particular horse" or "this particular human") are the most fundamental beings—everything else either is said of them or is present in them. Explain this claim. Why does Aristotle think individual substances are more fundamental than species, genera, or properties?

Week 10: Being and Substance

Metaphysics Book IV (Gamma), chapters 1-3 (~20 pages)

  • "There is a science that studies being qua being"
  • The meanings of being
  • The principle of non-contradiction

Metaphysics Book VII (Zeta), chapters 1-6, 13, 17 (~35 pages)

  • The question "What is substance?"
  • Candidates: substratum, essence, genus, universal
  • Essence and the "what it was to be" (to ti ēn einai)
  • Why universals cannot be substances

Reading time: ~6-7 hours

Writing assignment (due end of Week 10):

500 words on being qua being (Metaphysics IV.1):

What does Aristotle mean by "a science that studies being qua being"? How does this differ from the particular sciences (physics, mathematics, etc.)? Why is this inquiry necessary?

Week 11: Form, Matter, and Change

Physics Book I, chapters 7-9 (~20 pages)

  • The principles of change: form, privation, matter
  • How change is possible (responding to Parmenides)

Physics Book II, chapters 1-3 (~20 pages)

  • Nature (physis) as internal principle of motion
  • The four causes: material, formal, efficient, final
  • Nature acts for an end

Metaphysics Book VIII (Eta) (~25 pages)

  • Matter and potentiality
  • Form and actuality
  • The unity of the composite

Reading time: ~6-7 hours

Writing assignment (due end of Week 11):

500 words on the four causes (Physics II.3):

Explain Aristotle's doctrine of the four causes with an example (use your own, not just his). Why does Aristotle think all four are necessary for a complete explanation? Can you think of cases where some causes seem irrelevant?

Week 12: Actuality, Potentiality, and the Unmoved Mover

Metaphysics Book IX (Theta), chapters 1-9 (~30 pages)

  • Potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (energeia)
  • The priority of actuality
  • Active and passive potentiality

Metaphysics Book XII (Lambda), chapters 6-10 (~20 pages)

  • The unmoved mover
  • God as thought thinking itself
  • Final causation and cosmic order

Reading time: ~5-6 hours

Unit Essay (due end of Week 12):

3,000 words.

Prompt: How does Aristotle's hylomorphism (form-matter composition) address problems with Plato's theory of forms? Explain Aristotle's critique of Platonic separation and his alternative account of how form relates to particular things. Does Aristotle's solution create new problems? Consider the relationship between individual substances and their forms: is the form of Socrates identical to the form of Plato, or does each have his own form?

Key Concepts to Master

  • Categories: The ten highest kinds of being; the basic ways things can be
  • Primary substance: Individual, concrete beings (this horse, this human)
  • Secondary substance: Species and genera (horse, animal)
  • Essence (to ti ēn einai): "The what it was to be"; what makes a thing the kind of thing it is
  • Form (eidos, morphē): The structure, organization, or actuality of a thing
  • Matter (hylē): The underlying stuff that receives form
  • Hylomorphism: The doctrine that substances are composites of form and matter
  • Four causes: Material, formal, efficient, final—the four kinds of explanation
  • Potentiality (dynamis): The capacity to be or do something
  • Actuality (energeia, entelecheia): Being at work; full realization
  • Unmoved mover: The eternal, unchanging source of cosmic motion; God as final cause

Connections Forward

  • Medieval philosophy is largely Aristotelian (we won't cover it, but know this)
  • Hegel's dialectic responds to Aristotle's logic and metaphysics
  • Heidegger's early work is an interpretation of Aristotle
  • Aristotle's teleology (final causes) is what modern science rejects—and what critical theory sometimes wants to recover
  • The concept of essence (and "essentialism") becomes a target for later thinkers

Notes on Reading

Aristotle is harder than Plato in a different way. Plato is literary and elusive; Aristotle is technical and compressed. You may need to read passages multiple times.

Aristotle's texts are lecture notes, not polished publications. They can feel choppy. Arguments are sometimes sketched rather than fully developed.

Use the glossary in your edition. Aristotle's technical terms are precise, and translations vary. Knowing the Greek helps (even just recognizing key terms).

Do not consult secondary sources yet. The struggle with the text is essential.