ABSTRACT
Aristotle’s treatment of the natural world was systematic in its outlook and ambitious in its scope. He wrote many original and penetrating studies on natural phenomena and their underlying causes. The two areas dealing with nature and its underlying causes are generally referred to as ‘physics’ and ‘metaphysics’ respectively. Aristotle himself did not use the term ‘metaphysics’, but called this subject ‘rst philosophy’, or ‘the science of Being qua Being’ (Metaph. 4.1, more on these phrases below). Aristotle’s writings are in fact strongly grounded in his empirical work, an interest which may well have been stimulated by his father, who was a physician.1 Thus Aristotle’s work grew out of a primary interest in biology and empirical research into nature. But his more fundamental questions would consider the non-physical, such as moral principles, the meaning of being qua being, and the idea that concepts help us categorise and understand the world by types rather than their instantiations, that is, by inquiring into not just the concrete, but also the abstract. Part of his theoretical analysis of the world involved responding critically to early Greek and Platonic views, while also incorporating some of their ideas into a new theoretical framework. Like Plato, he wanted to build a comprehensive system by using both traditional and novel elements, but often he reached very dierent outcomes.
