Metaphysics

What It's About

Metaphysics is Aristotle's investigation into "being qua being" — the study of existence itself, apart from any particular kind of thing that exists. Spanning fourteen books, it asks what it means for something to be, what underlies change and permanence, and what first principles or causes explain reality as a whole. The work isn't a single continuous treatise but a collection of related inquiries, later editors gave it its name simply because they placed it after Aristotle's Physics in their ordering of his writings.

Key Concepts

Central to the work is the idea of substance (ousia) as the primary sense in which anything can be said to exist, alongside Aristotle's four causes — material, formal, efficient, and final. He develops the distinction between potentiality and actuality to explain change, mounts a sustained critique of Plato's theory of Forms, and closes with the concept of an unmoved mover: a first, unchanging cause of all motion in the universe.

About the Author

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Stagira. He studied under Plato at the Academy in Athens for around twenty years, later tutored the young Alexander the Great, and went on to found his own school, the Lyceum, where he lectured and researched across nearly every field of inquiry known at the time.

About This Edition

This is a 1924 translation by W. D. Ross.