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Metaphysics
Metaphysics (Greek: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά) is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and not because of any special qualities it has. Also co...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
March 1st 1999
by Green Lion Press
(first published January 1st 1992)
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Again, he starts each section with a review of the extant literature. I found his commentary on Thales interesting, the latter having said that water was the fundamental element, being found even in seeds. He most frequently references Anaxagous. In every instance, he gets to the cause and then brings in the early bases of logic to make his point. He again goes straight for the reality of any concept, criticizing the Pythagoreans who found mathematics in everything and made numbers the basis of...more
A Filosofia Primeira ou a existência das coisas.
3 princípios aristotélicos:identidade, não-contradição e terceiro excluído. Os princípios lógicos são ontológicos porque definem as condições sem as quais um ser não pode existir nem ser pensado; os primeiros princípios garantem, simultaneamente, a realidade e a racionalidade das coisas;
Pela causa das coisas podemos constatar a existência,sendo estas 4,em Aristóteles:material,motora e final.A teoria aristotélica sobre as causas estende-se sobre tod...more
3 princípios aristotélicos:identidade, não-contradição e terceiro excluído. Os princípios lógicos são ontológicos porque definem as condições sem as quais um ser não pode existir nem ser pensado; os primeiros princípios garantem, simultaneamente, a realidade e a racionalidade das coisas;
Pela causa das coisas podemos constatar a existência,sendo estas 4,em Aristóteles:material,motora e final.A teoria aristotélica sobre as causas estende-se sobre tod...more
Dec 05, 2010
Erik Graff
rated it
3 of 5 stars
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
philosophers
Recommended to Erik by:
Peter Maxwell
Shelves:
philosophy
Hippocrates G. Apostle, the translator of this text, taught at Grinnell while I attended college there and some of my friends worked with him. Other than teaching, he and his wife also maintained a Personal column in the town newspaper, a column with notices such as the following: "M.E. Nalus reports the return of wife, Helen, from Turkish tour." I, having insufficient Greek, never more than glancingly met the fellow.
Aristotle's Metaphysics is of uncertain orign. We don't know when it was writte...more
Aristotle's Metaphysics is of uncertain orign. We don't know when it was writte...more
What is the being of that thing which underlies any phenomenon? The central question of metaphysics is an intriguing one, and it must be said for the benefit of all the numbskull atheists on here who might think that this is a religious question, it is a perfectly scientific query, for it is in fact the question of, how can we say a person is the same person even though all of her organs have been shed and renewed, or, in the case of an artefact, how is a house the same house after it has been r...more
Considered by many academics to be the most challenging work throughout all of literature, Aristotle's "Metaphysics" is more than just fancy words and non-sensical theorems. It deals with the most important theme possible: being/existence - both generally and specifically. For the Greek philosopher, nothing takes precedence over being because without being, there would be nothing. In other words, Aristotle deals with First Principles of knowledge by determining what composes the fabrics of our v...more
Metaphysics, true to its name, studies the essence of being. The study of “being qua being” seems to be the phrase of choice. Much of the book appears to be an extension of ideas originally brought forth in Categories. Essentially, Aristotle attempts to define the essence of a thing. What makes each thing…“be.”
Not surprisingly, Aristotle spends considerable time with definitions. He reacts to his predecessors, contemporaries and the absurdities in the sophist tradition.
Not surprisingly, Aristotle spends considerable time with definitions. He reacts to his predecessors, contemporaries and the absurdities in the sophist tradition.
And definition arises out...more
I went to school where Joe Sachs teaches, and his translations are excellently faithful, even if that does mean a little initial adjustment on the part of the reader; compound Greek words are often translated as hyphenated English phrases, ie, "entelecheia" is "being-at-work-staying-itself," if I recall.
Given that Ibn-Sina - one of the great Islamic Philosophers - once claimed to have read the Metaphysics 40 times and not understood it, I think I'm in pretty good company having read it once and only understood fleeting parts of it. I don't think that's a problem with Artistotle's ideas, just that this isn't a book that Aristotle would have written, more a collection of his teachings or lecture notes that were jumbled together from different periods of Aristotle's life into one collection.
Howeve...more
Howeve...more
The first thing I must confess is that I read this book far to sketchy. This is not even a book that is possible to read in a skimming manner, because then you will miss the very intricate argument, which is exactly what I did. But my reason for reading it was actually just to have a sense of what it is about and that I got. I was interested in his thoughts on the First philosophy on, even though I didn't quite follow it, the idea of the monads, the first cause. A further thing that I am glad th...more
Ternyata setelah selesai dibaca, tak seseram yang kukira. Tentu terlalu sombong jika dikata memahami semua isinya. Tapi, kira-kira inilah yang kutangkap dari Metaphysics
Setiap manusia pada kodratnya menghasrati pengetahuan dan kebijakan. Untuk itu pengembaraan ilmu haruslah tanpa pamrih.
Metaphysics, terdiri dari empat belas buku. Buku pertama sampai buku tiga diisi dengan ringkasan pemikiran filsafat pada masa sebelum Aristoteles. Dia menjelaskan tentang kebijakan dimulai dengan persepsi inderaw...more
Setiap manusia pada kodratnya menghasrati pengetahuan dan kebijakan. Untuk itu pengembaraan ilmu haruslah tanpa pamrih.
Metaphysics, terdiri dari empat belas buku. Buku pertama sampai buku tiga diisi dengan ringkasan pemikiran filsafat pada masa sebelum Aristoteles. Dia menjelaskan tentang kebijakan dimulai dengan persepsi inderaw...more
Aristoteles, metafiziği "varlık olması bakımından varlığın bilimi" olarak tanımlar. Metafizik 14 kitaptan oluşuyor ve her kitapta farklı konular ele alınıyor. Birinci kitap önsöz niteliğindedir. Platon ve öncesindeki filozofların görüşlerine kısaca yer verilir. İkinci kitapta felsefe üzerine genel düşünceler vardır. Üçüncü kitapta metafiziğin 14 ana problemi sıralanır. Dördüncü kitapta metafiziğin tanımı yapılır ve amacı açıklanır. Protogorasın görelilik görüşü eleştirilir. Beşinci kitapta Arist...more
Siempre será complejo entender las cuestiones del ser en tanto que ser. La metafísica es la ciencia que se ocupa de esto y Aristóteles nos ilustra en su obra magna "Metafísica". Aristóteles fue discípulo de Platón, y este último de Sócrates.
Esta obra se comprende por once libros concernientes a las razones del ser y lo que emana de él. Aristóteles van tan lejos hasta contradecir a su mentor, Platón, quien creía que todas las cosas provienen de sus contrarios. Aristóteles se pregunta: ¿cómo las...more
Esta obra se comprende por once libros concernientes a las razones del ser y lo que emana de él. Aristóteles van tan lejos hasta contradecir a su mentor, Platón, quien creía que todas las cosas provienen de sus contrarios. Aristóteles se pregunta: ¿cómo las...more
J'étais très curieux de lire ce petit livre, sur lequels se penchèrent des commentateurs célèbres, comme Maïmonides, Averroes, ou encore Thomas d'Aquin. J'ai vite compris pourquoi des hommes prétendant trouver leur chemin dans le labyrinthe de la Métaphysique ont pu en imposer à leur semblables, tant le brouillard qui enveloppe les idées exposées dans l'ouvrage est épais. Cette épaisseur tranche d'ailleurs avec la clarté d'autres ouvrages d'Aristote, comme la Poétique ou la Rhétorique. On pourra...more
Oct 27, 2008
Zach
added it
a few thoughts i wrote out about this book:
Prime Mover, Paragon of Thinkers
The prime mover is as such, we learn in Metaphysics, because its thoughts are the cause of motion in all that is beautiful (1072a.26-29) and are thoughts of itself, for “its thinking is a thinking of thinking” (1074b.35). And this beautiful, it is noted, is in the highest, most complete sense imaginable, which seems to express that all that is whole and complete in the universe, all that is as it is, is because of the th...more
Prime Mover, Paragon of Thinkers
The prime mover is as such, we learn in Metaphysics, because its thoughts are the cause of motion in all that is beautiful (1072a.26-29) and are thoughts of itself, for “its thinking is a thinking of thinking” (1074b.35). And this beautiful, it is noted, is in the highest, most complete sense imaginable, which seems to express that all that is whole and complete in the universe, all that is as it is, is because of the th...more
An incredibly lucid text, though admittedly a brain-twister, Aristotle here examines First Philosophy and finds Plato's Forms wholly deficient of a real existence. He concludes that there is a prime mover, and refutes the sophistic reasoning of almost all of his contemporaries. Aristotle leaves metaphysics an open issue, generally, perhaps recalling, despite, no doubt, being an atheist, that to deny metaphysics is just as arrogant as to detail it. Read after his Organon.
Joe Sachs's translation is eccentric, but enlightening. His attempts to render core Aristotelian concepts in everyday English often backfire, but they are a useful complement to the usual, Latinate vocabulary. My favorite is his rendering of ἐνέργεια as ‘being–at–work’.
Sachs's introduction is, additionally, a wonderful short argument for a unitary reading of Metaphysics, against the critical reading which has seen various sections of it as mutually incompatible.
Sachs's introduction is, additionally, a wonderful short argument for a unitary reading of Metaphysics, against the critical reading which has seen various sections of it as mutually incompatible.
This is, of course, one of the foundational texts of western philosophical thought. It contains many fundamental doctrines and questions/explorations (including the inaugural presentation of the Law of Non-Contradiction). However, the translation was pretty painful, and for more complex, mind-bending investigations, there are many other volumes that get much more of a rise out of me. This is kind of like if you need to brush up on your Calculus and you start by going all the way back to multipic...more
Great book by Aristotle. This translation, though, is, or rather can be, very, very, immensely over-confusing. I found myself frustrated more at the translator's words than Aristotle's ideas, which in and of themselves, are pretty confusing at times. Read a different, more traditional translation. Unless you like words with 38 hyphens.
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Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology.
Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures...more
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Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures...more
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