The Structure of Being in Aristotle’s Metaphysics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Per se Being and Potential/Actual Being

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 1-20

3. From Being to Substance

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 21-48

4. Hylomorphism and Its Two Approaches

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 49-82

5. Subject, Form, and Essence

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 83-111

6. Form: Tode ti and Toionde

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 113-154

7. Substantial Potentiality and Actuality

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 155-180

8. Actuality and the Prime Mover

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 181-200

9. The Unity of Aristotle’s Metaphysics

   • Jiyuan Yu

   Pages 201-210

10. Back Matter

    Pages 211-241

    PDF

In his Metaphysics, Aristotle claims that he is seeking to establish a science of being. Being, at the most general level, is divided by Aristotle into the following four types: 1. Accidental being 2. Being as truth 3. Potential/actual being l 4. Per se being Per se (kath hauto) being can also be translated as "being in its own right" or "intrinsic being". This type of being has been referred to by Aristotle in different ways. The list of per se beings includes substance, quantity, quality, place, time, etc. , and this is also the list ofcategories. At Meta. ix. l, 1045b28 Aristotle calls this list the "categories of being" (hai kategoriai tou ontos). At Meta. vi. 2, 1026a36 and ix. 1O, 1051a33-b2 per se being is called "being with reference to the figures ofpredication" (ta schemata tes kategorias, or "figures ofcategories,,). 2 Of these four types of being, accidental being is briefly treated in Meta. vi. 2-3 and there Aristotle claims that the study of accidental being can be dismissed on the grounds that accidental being is indeterminate and cannot be 3 the object ofknowledge. He also does not pay much attention to being as truth and treats it briefly in two short texts: Meta. viA and ix. 1O.

• Aristotle
• interpret
• knowledge
• metaphysics

• State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

  Jiyuan Yu

Policies and ethics