Pizhuhish nāmah-i intiqādī-i mutūn va barnāmah hā-yi ̒ulūm-i insāni (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences)

Reading and Criticizing the Book τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (Metaphysics) of Aristotle as an Investigation into the Unit of Science

Document Type : Research

Author

Maryam Jayervand

PhD Student in Philosophy, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/crtls.2024.46889.2792
Abstract
“τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (Metaphysics)” is a title that was given to a collection of Aristotle’s researches after him. In this way, the unity of “Metaphysics” as a unified work has been questioned from the beginning. Finding the primary question and the desirable goal in different parts of Metaphysics is necessary to read this book as a single work. What transforms Metaphysics into a single work is a unique knowledge that Aristotle considered in hismetaphysical research. In “Metaphysics” Aristotle seeks a science called Sophia or the first science. Whether Sophia is a distinct science is for Aristotle a difficult question to answer. To understand Aristotle’s problem, we should consider the unity of each science. How does every single science become a separate one? For Aristotle unity of each science depends on its substance or subject. Sophia has a specific subject, so Sophia’s unity is not like other sciences. Sophia considers being qua being as its subject. By being qua being, Aristotle introduces a general subject for Sophia. The subject of Sophia is the whole universe, but a conception of the whole is prior to discovering each substance as a unique substance. Sophia plays an important role in defining and discovering a new subject. So, Sophia is not itself a distinct science, it is the origin of all sciences. Sophia is called the first science in this view

Keywords

First Science
Sophia
Substance
Unity
Being Qua Being
Whole

Subjects

Aristotle (1392), metaphysics (metaphysics), translated by Sharafuddin Khorasani, Tehran: Hekmat.
Aristotle (1385), Ethics of Nicomachus, translated by Mohammad Hasan Lotfi, Tehran: New Project.
Farabi (1389), Ihsa al-Uloom, translated by Khedive Jam, Tehran: Scientific and Cultural.
Farabi (1390), Philosophical Treatises, translated by Saeed Rahimian, Tehran: Scientific and Cultural.
Jaeger, Werner (2010), Aristotle; The basics of the history of the evolution of his thought, translated by Kolbasi Ashtari, Tehran: Amir Kabir.
Roshni, Hamed (2019), “Aristotle; Philosophy and unity of the sciences system”, Philosophy, year 48, vol. 2, 90-110.
Aristotle (1991), The Complete Works of Aristotle, J. Barnes (ed.), Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (2009), Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy, D. Metcalf and B. Tanzer (Trans.), Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

  • Receive Date 23 December 2023
  • Revise Date 03 April 2024
  • Accept Date 22 April 2024

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