Topic > Analysis of the main points of Aristotle's metaphysics

Aristotle begins his story in Metaphysics by talking about how knowledge is obtained in various ways and forms. He believes that one has the most substantial right to knowledge if one can give the best account of it. To facilitate this, he suggests the notion of “first causes”. In summary, root causes seek to recognize the reason. This gives us background to his premise that to answer the question of why a thing exists, we must know its four causes, namely: essential, formal, final, and material. He writes: “Everyone's judgment in any discipline that deserves the name of wisdom must describe the first causes.” This postulation refers to his notion of 'being and essence', which is one of the four causes previously stated. In Book IV he insists on the idea that "being is unity", where he writes: "being and unity are of the same and unique nature, since they imply each other, as principle and cause", which implies that he considers the idea of ​​being as a unique phenomenon that can exist independently in reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn the Aristotelian sense, to explain what a "material reality" is, it is necessary to analyze its characterization of matter. Aristotle states that things that have a natural becoming are those that arise from nature. They come from something called “matter”. According to him, matter can fall into two categories: ordinary matter and raw (or perceptible and intelligible) matter. Explaining his notion of narrative, he states: "primary things are those that are talked about in a way that does not consist of saying one thing about another." He also says: “substances evidently have a definition and essence of the primary type, that is, a definition and essence without qualification.” alluding to his notion of “substance” which we will talk about later. His classification of ordinary matter includes only things like bronze or wood that possess raw material and have the ability to move. Reality is something that exists independently of imagination. Therefore, the idea of ​​a perishable material reality must refer to Aristotle's notion of ordinary matter. Aristotle deepens his account by adding his own proposal for what wisdom refers to, as well as introducing Plato's theory of the Forms and his critique of that theory. One of his criticisms included his belief that a source of movement was needed to cause change in the world. Aristotle perceived time and (therefore) motion as circular. He states: “The movement cannot be born or perish, nor can time. Movement is therefore also continuous, as is time, since time is the same thing as movement is an attribute of it. But the only continuous motion is local motion, especially circular motion.” This leads him to postulate the idea of ​​a “Prime Mover,” the being who possesses the “immovable substance” that is the initiator of motion. Aristotle suggests that since time is circular, matter is in a cycle of creation and perishing, or being and non-being. It states that to be is to move towards an ultimate goal of what is “good”. Aristotle defined substance in two ways. In terms of the form of a being (which is referred to as essence), it is something that the being is, in itself. Whereas in terms of the form and material of a being, it is a composite of the matter and form of the being. Aristotle used the continuity of time and motion to illustrate the idea of ​​infinite potentiality in relation to local motion or the Prime Mover. He says: "there exists an eternal, immobile substance, separated from sensible things... this substance cannot have any size, but must.