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API>TOTEAOT> TA META TA OT>IKA

ARISTOTLE'SMETAPHYSICSA REVISED TEXT

IT//TH ].\'TRODL'CTION AND COMMENTARYll Y

W. D. ROSSFEL I ,OW OF OR IFL C OI ,L EGE

D E P T I T Y P R O F E S S O R O F I \ I O R A I , P H I L O S O P H Y I N T H 8T ' N I V E R S I T Y O F O X F O R D

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OX FOR DT H E C LA R E N D ON P R E S S

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Oxford Uniz,ersitt ' Press, Great Clarendon Street, Otford oxz 6o pOxford Ne..:c'orkAthens ,4uckland Bangkoh Bogota Bombat,Buenos Aires ('alcutta Cape Toun Dar es SalaamDelhi Flnrence Hong Kong Istanbul KarathiKualo Lumpur Madras Madrid MelbourneMetico City Nairobi Paris SingapctreI-aipei Tohyo Toronto Warsau-and associated ombanies nBertin Ihadan

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PREFACETH e main object of this preface is to express my sincere

thanks to those who have helped me in PreParing his editionof the tlletaphltsics, First I would thank the Trustees of thcJowett Copyright Fund and the Masterand Fellows of BalliolCollege,whose gcnerous inancial help has made possible thepublication of the book ; their assistances commemoratedbyth c Balliol arms on th e cover. Next I wish to exPressmygratitude to th e following friends,who have read Parts of thebook in manuscriptand much assistedme by their commentsProfessors . A. Smith and C. C. J. Webb of this University ;Professor E. S. Forster of th e University of ShefficldProfessorJ. L. Stocks of th e Victoria University, Manchesterthe late Mr . C. Cannan, Secretary to the Delegates of thePress; Mr. R. G. Col l ingwood, el low of PembrokeCollege;Mr. H. A. Prichard, late Fellow of Trinity College; andparticularly ProfessorH. H. Joachim of this University, wh onot only commented e-rhaustively n my treatment of BooksZH@ but allowed me to make rvhat use I pleasedof his ownvaluable uotes on tsook Z, My alparatus critictts containsunpublished emendations (some of which I have adopted)by Professol'sForster, Joachim,and Smith, and Mr' Cannan'as well as 6ome by th e late Professor I. Bywater, by thePresident of Corpus Christi College (lVIr. T. Case), arrd byProfessor A, R. Lord of Rhodes University College, Grahams'town. On some points in the later Platonic theory I havehad the,advantage of exchanging views with Professor A. E.Taylor of th e University of Edinburgh. Mr. R. MoKenzie,liereday Fellow

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cvlu I NTRODUCTI ONThe chapter is clearly dialectical. The result it leads o is

onewhichAristotle doesno t accept. He is no doubt n earnestnrefusing o find the substance fany separately xistingbeing n a

ARISTOTLE 'S METAPHYSICAL DOCTRINE cixfrom thosepeculiar o th e individuals'' (z ) On the other hand'definition and demonstration re th e very tyPes of knowledge'Science,or knowledge Aristotle has one word fo r both),startst demonstrates

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universal characterwhich according o all his principlescannotexistseparately. And he s in earnest n refusing o recognize heuniversal as a substance resent in the essenceof its speciesorof its individuals. Bu t it is his own doctrine hat in somesensethe universal is present n the essence f its particulars, and thiswill emerge ater.Ch . r4 applies to the Platonic deas Aristotle's argumentsagainst reducing the substance of i ndividuals to anything uni-versal.Ch . r5 carries on the thought of ch. 13. In that chapterAristotle argued that no substan ce can consist of universalsbecause very universalsignifiesno t a 'this' bu t a 'such'. Henow draws th e corollary hat sincedefinition s an enunciation funiversal marks, it can never adequately express the nature ofan individual. The chapter argues that (r ) individuals areindefinable, nd (z ) n particular the ldeas are so since he y ar ethought of by the Platonists as individuals, having separateexistence. Individuals are indefinable (a) because hey containmatter and are thereforeperishable. A definition which was atone ime true might thereforecease o be true, and thereforecouldonly havebeenopinion, not knowledge. (6) In the discussionofthe definability of Ideas he further point,which is applicable o a//individuals, omesout, ha t any definition s bound to nameonlycummonqualitiesand thereforenot to s tate the unique nature ofthe individual.The conclusion hat individuals annotbe subjects f definitionnor of demonstration createsa serious difficulty for Aristotle, ofwhich much has been made by Zeller. (r) On the one hand, forAristotle only individuals are really substances, The only formswhich have separatesubstantialexistence apart from matter areindividuals-God and the intell igences ha t move he spheresthe mistake of the Platonists according to Ar.istotle is not thatthey believe in irimaterial entities but that they identify themrvith universals.' And, at a lower level, the individuals con-crete of forrn and matter are more real, more substantial hanthe universals in which their common qualities are abstracted

I lo . l t rb 27- tc .4 tn 3,

with definitionan d proceedsby demonstration;universalpropertiesas flowing from universaldefinitions' Thisis the consistent eachingol thePosteriorAnalytics' Now $) thatwhich is most real stroulabe fo r Aristotle most fully knowable'and therefore most strictly th e subject of definition and ofdemonstration. He ha s sald explicit lyan d more than once ha tsubstance lone,or substance rimarily, s definable'tIn various passagesAristotle hints at a solution of thisdifficulty. 1r ) individuals, though no t definable,ar e known.bythe aid tf i.,tuitiu. thotrght (r6,1o,sl r of perception-intelligibleindividuals ik e ,this circle by the former,sensible ndividualsby th e latter.s Apart from the abstractiveand discursivepro'"!dur" of science here ar eothermoreconcrete nd direct

modesof knowledge (of which one-v6'7ots-is conceived as actuallysuperior oiciencel by which the whole ndividualnatureof theindividual is grasped n a single act' Aristotle appears o -b epointing hers to an importanifact, the-fact hat our knowledgeol inaiuiau"ls, e. g. of personsor of places, s not held in theform of a se t of universalpropositions'and could no t be com-pletely stated n such a form. Bu t it is to be regretted ha t h, e'aia no t work ou t more fully a theory ol v67cc n which thisfunctionwascorrelatedwith the other functions eassignso it -th e knowledge f the irstprinciples fscience, nd he knowledgeof essences nd of incompositesubstances''(z ) Aristotle has elsewhere a different solution' It is onlyknowledgeas existing potentially (i ' e' as it is in th e mind ofa man oJ sciencewhJn-he is not thinking of th e objectof hi sscience) ha t is of the universal; actual knowledge is of the-individual. Or , as he aiso puts it , just as sight is directly of' this' colour,and only incidentallyof colour n generalbec-a1t1eth i sco lou r i saco lou r , sog rammat i ca l sc ience i sd i rec t l y .o ft h i salpha', an d only incidentally of alpha"

This contentionalsohas ruth, To take Aristotie's ow n example of th e science.o fgrammar, th e actuality of grammatical knowledge cannot be

I ' to35b 7, o36b6- o39" 4, L' roTrN9-24', roio. zt-b7, o3tt13 , o39c 9. t to36az-8'I o . r o . 5 I I . I o 8 7 " to - 2 5 : cf ' D e A n ' 4 t7 n2 t - 2 9 '

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