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The beginning of Aristotle's Metaphysics, one of the foundational texts of the discipline. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of human ...
Metaphysics – traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it, [1] although the term is not easily defined. [2] Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: [3] What is ultimately there or what if it was never there?
In Physics II.3 and Metaphysics V.2, Aristotle holds that there are four kinds of answers to "why" questions: [2] [5] [6] Matter The material cause of a change or movement. This is the aspect of the change or movement that is determined by the material that composes the moving or changing things.
Philosopher Brian Leftow has argued that the question cannot have a causal explanation (as any cause must itself have a cause) or a contingent explanation (as the factors giving the contingency must pre-exist), and that if there is an answer, it must be something that exists necessarily (i.e., something that just exists, rather than is caused ...
Many of Aristotle's works are extremely compressed, and many scholars believe that in their current form, they are likely lecture notes. [2] Subsequent to the arrangement of Aristotle's works by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century BC, a number of his treatises were referred to as the writings "after ("meta") the Physics" [b], the origin of the current title for the collection Metaphysics.
For Aristotle, "all science (dianoia) is either practical, poetical or theoretical" (Metaphysics 1025b25). His practical science includes ethics and politics; his poetical science means the study of fine arts including poetry; his theoretical science covers physics, mathematics and metaphysics. [61]
Aristotelian physics is the form of natural philosophy described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC). In his work Physics, Aristotle intended to establish general principles of change that govern all natural bodies, both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial – including all motion (change with respect to place), quantitative change (change with respect to ...
The emphasis on dunamis in the name of this new science comes from the importance of his discovery of potential energy which is not active, but conserves energy nevertheless. "As 'a science of power and action', dynamics arises when Leibniz proposes an adequate architectonic of laws for constrained, as well as unconstrained, motions." [53]