ABSTRACT
In a striking and memorable statement at the end of the first chapter of book VII, Aristotle indicates his overall aim in these central books of the Metaphysics (i.e. books VII-IX):
Indeed, that which is always, both now and long ago, sought after and which is always a source of puzzlement, i.e. the question, What is being?, is really the question, What is primary being? [ousia]…. So we too must, most of all, primarily, and so to speak exclusively, investigate about that which is being in this way [i.e. that which is being in the primary way]: what is it?
