Aristotelian Philosophy: Sciences, Metaphysics, Substance, and Act-Potency

Vocabulary flashcards covering Aristotle's classification of sciences, metaphysics, polyvocal being, the ten categories, hylomorphism (matter, form, synolo), accidental types, logical axioms (non-contradiction, identity, excluded middle), and the metaphysics of potency and act.

Theoretical Sciences (Scienze teoretiche)

Disciplines named after the Greek verb theoréo ("I look") whose object is the necessary (that which cannot be otherwise); pursued for the pure desire to know without practical aims, using a demonstrative method (metaphysics, physics, and mathematics).

Practical Sciences (Scienze pratiche)

Disciplines named after the Greek verb prásso ("I do/act") whose object is the possible; they guide human action using non-demonstrative reasoning valid for the most part (perlopiù), comprising ethics (individual action) and politics (collective action).

Poietic Sciences (Scienze poietiche o produttive)

Disciplines named after the Greek verb poieo ("I produce/create") that govern arts and techniques; they manipulate objects to create a concrete product that possesses an autonomous existence independent of its maker.

Andronico di Rodi

The thinker in the 1st century BC who reorganized Aristotle's works and coined the phrase metà ta physiká ("after the books of physics") by placing the treatises on first philosophy directly after those on physics.

Four Definitions of Metaphysics

Aristotle's characterizations of first philosophy as the science that studies: (1) first causes and principles, (2) being qua being, (3) substance, and (4) God and unmoved substance (sostanza immobile).

Being qua Being (L'essere in quanto essere)

The core definition of metaphysics where it investigates the universal aspects common to everything that exists, distinguishing itself from "second philosophies" that isolate specific attributes like quantity (mathematics) or motion (physics).

Univocal Being (Essere univoco)

The perspective attributed to Paumenide (Parmenides) stating that "to be" means strictly and solely "to exist," leading to the error that negating a predicate of a subject inevitably denies its very existence.

Equivocal Being (Essere equivoco)

The unsustainable position that the word "being" has completely different, disconnected meanings in every distinct context, rendering language and communication impossible.

Polyvocal Being (Essere polivoco)

Aristotle's thesis that being is neither purely univocal nor purely equivocal, but possesses a multiplicity of distinct meanings that are unified by their common reference to a single foundational reality: substance.

Four Basic Meanings of Being

The fundamental senses of being identified by Aristotle: accidental being (essere per altro), being per se according to the categories (essere per sé), being as true, and being as potency and act.

Categories (Categorie)

The fundamental and structural characteristics of reality that every entity possesses; eight primary categories (substance, quality, quantity, relation, acting, suffering/subire, where, when) plus two additional ones (having/avere, posture/giacere).

Substance (Substantia)

From the Latin substantia ("that which stands beneath" / ciò che sta sotto); the concrete individual entity that exists autonomously and serves as the ontological and logical subject to which all other categories and predicates are attributed.

Synolo (Sinolo)

The indissoluble composite of matter and form that constitutes any concrete, individual substance (the "this here" / questo qui).

Matter (Materia)

The passive, indeterminate, and potential element of a substance representing what an object is made of (e.g., wood for a table), which is organized and shaped by the form.

Form (Forma)

The active and actualizing principle, deep structure, or specific nature of a substance that determines matter and makes a thing what it is (e.g., rational nature in Socrates).

"What Being Was" (Ciò che era l'essere)

Aristotle's formula expressing essence, using the imperfect tense to underscore the continuity, permanence, and unchanging nature of a substance's defining form.

Casual Accident (Accidente casuale)

A non-essential, contingent property that a substance can possess or lose without ceasing to be what it is or altering its fundamental nature (e.g., Socrates being pale).

Eternal Accident (Accidente eterno / per sé)

A property that is not stated in an entity's essential definition but derives necessarily from its nature (such as the interior angles of a triangle summing to $180^\circ$), forming an object of certain scientific knowledge.

Abstraction (Astrazione)

From the Latin abstrahere ("to draw from"); the methodological procedure by which a science isolates its specific object of study by setting aside all properties irrelevant to its inquiry.

Principle of Identity or Determination

The axiom formulated as $A = A$, affirming logically that it is impossible to conceive a determined entity as not being itself, and ontologically that every existing entity has a determined, necessary nature.

Principle of Non-Contradiction

The principle stating that an entity cannot simultaneously be and not be the same thing at the same time and in the exact same respect.

Principle of the Excluded Middle (Terzo escluso)

The logical theorem derived from non-contradiction stating that of two contradictory propositions ($A \text{ is } B$ and $A \text{ is not } B$), one must be true and the other false, with no third possibility.

Demonstration by Refutation (Dimostrazione per confutazione)

The indirect proof used in Book 4 of the Metaphysics to validate the supreme principle, demonstrating that any interlocutor attempting to deny it must rely on its validity in order to assert anything meaningful.

Potency and Act (Potenza e atto)

The conceptual framework explaining becoming (divenire); potency is the capacity of matter to take on a form, while act is the concrete realization of that form.

Epistemological Priority of Act

The principle that an act must be known prior to its corresponding potency because a capacity is defined by the end toward which it is directed (e.g., an oak tree must be known to understand an acorn).

Chronological Priority of Act

The rule that act precedes potency in time because any entity in potency must be generated by a precursor entity that is already fully in act (e.g., the hen temporally precedes the egg).

Ontological Priority of Act

The primacy of act over potency in being, as the act represents the final cause, completion, and purpose toward which potentiality strives.

Unidirectional Potency

The Aristotelian principle that potentiality is inherently oriented toward a single definite realization (e.g., an eagle's egg can only develop into an eagle, never into another animal).