Authors/Thomas Aquinas/metaphysics/liber12/lect1

Lecture 1

Latin	English
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 1 Postquam philosophus in praecedenti libro recollegerat quae ante dicta erant tam in hoc libro quam in libro physicorum de entibus imperfectis, in hoc libro intendit recolligere quae dicta sunt de ente simpliciter idest, de substantia, tam in septimo et in octavo huius, quam etiam in primo physicorum, et addere id quod deest ad complendam considerationem de substantiis. Et dividitur in partes duas. In prima ostendit quod ad istam scientiam pertinet considerare praecipue de substantia. In secunda de substantia determinat, ibi, substantiae vero tres. Circa primum duo facit. Primo proponit quod intendit; dicens quod in hac scientia est theoria, idest consideratio principalis de substantia. Nam cum ista scientia, utpote prima, et quae sapientia dicitur, principia prima entium inquirat, necesse est quod in hac scientia inquirantur principaliter principia et causae substantiarum. Nam ista sunt principia entium prima. Quomodo autem differant principium et causa, in quinto habitum est.	2416. Having summarized in the preceding book the points that were previously made regarding imperfect being both in this work and in the Physics, in this book the Philosopher aims to summarize the things that have been said about being in its unqualified sense, i.e., substance, both in Books VII and VIII of this work and in Book I of the Physics, and to add anything that is missing in order to make his study of substances complete. This is divided into two parts. First (1023)C 2416), he shows that this science is chiefly concerned with substances. Second (1028:C 2424), he gives his views about the classes of substances (“Now there are three”). In regard to the first he does two things. First, he states his thesis. He says that in this science “the study,” i.e., the principal inquiry, has to do with substances. For since this science, being the first and the one called wisdom, investigates the first principles of beings, the principles and causes of substances must constitute its main object of study; for these are the first principles of beings. The way in which principle and cause differ has been pointed out in Book V (403:C 760).
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 2 Etenim et si probat propositum quatuor modis. Primo per hoc quod substantia est prior aliis entibus. Unde scientia prima, de primo ente debet principaliter determinare. Quod autem substantia sit prima inter omnia entia, manifestat per simile in rebus sensibilibus, in quibus invenitur ordo inter aliqua dupliciter. Uno modo secundum quod partes alicuius totius habent ordinem adinvicem, sicut in animali pars prima est cor, et in domo fundamentum. Alio modo secundum quod aliqua sunt consequenter se habentia, ex quibus non fit unum vel continuitate vel contactu. Sicut in exercitu dicitur prima acies, et secunda acies. Sicut igitur in aliquo toto est aliqua prima pars, et sicut iterum in his quae consequenter se habent, est aliquod primum, ita substantia est primum inter omnia alia entia. Et hoc est quod dicit, quod si omne, idest universitas entium sit quoddam totum, substantia est prima pars, sicut fundamentum in domo. Et si entia se habent sicut ea quae sunt consequenter, ita etiam substantia erit primum, et deinde quantitas, et qualitas, et alia genera.	2417. For if the totality (1024) He proves his thesis in four ways. The first proof runs thus. Since substance is prior to the other kinds of beings, the first science should be one that is chiefly concerned with the primary kind of being. He shows that substance is the primary kind of being by using an analogous case in the realm of sensible things, among which order is found in two ways. One kind of order is found among sensible things inasmuch as the parts of any whole have a certain natural arrangement; for example, the first part of an animal is the heart, and the first part of a house the foundation. Another kind of order is found among sensible things inasmuch as some follow others and one thing is not constituted from them either by continuity or by contact. It is in this sense that one speaks of the first and second lines of an army. Hence, just as there is some first part in any whole, and also some first entity among things that follow one another, so too substance is the first of all other beings. This is what he means when he says “For if the totality,” i.e., the universe of beings, is a kind of whole, substance is its first part, just as the foundation is the first part of a house. And if beings are like things that follow one another, substance again will be first, and then quantity, and then the other categories.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 3 Averrois autem non attendens hoc secundum similitudinem dici, quia consideravit non posse cadere in alicuius mentem, quod omnia alia genera entium essent sicut partes unius totius continui, divertit a plano sensu literae in aliam expositionem, dicens per haec duo Aristotelem intendisse duplicem habitudinem quam contingit opinari in entibus; scilicet vel quod habeant se sicut ea quae sunt unius naturae et unius generis, quod esset si ens esset commune genus eorum vel qualitercumque communitatem habens ad ea. Et hoc intelligit cum dicit, si ut totum quoddam. Vel quod habeant se adinvicem sicut quae in nullo communi conveniunt. Et hoc intellexit cum dixit, et si in eo quod consequenter et cetera. Utrolibet enim modo sequitur quod substantia sit prior aliis entibus.	2418. But Averroes, failing to consider that this statement is analogical because he considered it impossible for anyone to think that all the other genera of beings should be parts of one continuous whole, departs from the obvious sense of the text and explains it in a different way. He says that by these two orders Aristotle meant the twofold relationship which can be conceived between things. The first is that beings are related as things having one nature and one genus, which would be true if being were their common genus, or in whatever way it might be common to them. He says that this is Aristotle’s meaning when he says “If the totality of things is a kind of whole.” The second is that beings are related as things having nothing in common. He says that this is Aristotle’s meaning when he says “And if things constitute a whole by reason of succession”; for in either case it follows that substance is prior to the other kinds of being.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 4 Deinde cum dicit similiter autem secundo modo probat idem; dicens, quod quantitas et qualitas et huiusmodi non sunt simpliciter entia, ut infra dicetur. Nam ens dicitur quasi esse habens, hoc autem solum est substantia, quae subsistit. Accidentia autem dicuntur entia, non quia sunt, sed quia magis ipsis aliquid est; sicut albedo dicitur esse, quia eius subiectum est album. Ideo dicit, quod non dicuntur simpliciter entia, sed entis entia, sicut qualitas et motus.	2419. But in like manner (1025). Then he gives a second proof of his thesis. He says that quantity and quality and the like are not beings in an unqualified sense, as will be said below. For being means something having existence, but it is substance alone that subsists. And accidents are called beings, not because they are but rather because by them something is; for example, whiteness is said to be because by it the subject is white. Hence Aristotle says that accidents, as quality and motion, are not called beings in an unqualified sense, but beings of a being.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 5 Nec est mirum, si accidentia dicuntur entia, cum non sint simpliciter entia, quia etiam privationes et negationes dicuntur quodammodo entia, sicut non album et non rectum. Dicimus enim quod non album est; non quia non album esse habeat, sed quia subiectum aliquod est albedine privatum. Hoc igitur commune est inter accidentia et privationes, quia de utrisque dicitur ens ratione subiecti. Sed in hoc differunt, quia subiectum secundum accidentia habet esse aliquale, secundum vero privationes non habet esse aliquale, sed est deficiens ab esse.	2420. Nor is it surprising if accidents are called beings even though they are not beings in an unqualified sense, because even privations and negations are called beings in a sense, for example, the not-white and the not-straight. For we say that the not-white is, not because the not-white has being, but because some subject is deprived of whiteness. Accidents and privations have this in common, then, that being is predicated of both by reason of their subject. Yet they differ in this respect that, while a subject has being of some kind by reason of its accidents, it does not have being of any kind by reason of privations, but is deficient in being.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 6 Sic igitur, cum accidentia non sint simpliciter entia, sed solum substantiae, haec scientia, quae considerat ens inquantum est ens, non considerat principaliter accidentia, sed substantias.	2421. Therefore, since accidents are not beings in an unqualified sense, but only substances are, this science, which considers being as being, is not chiefly concerned with accidents but with substances.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 7 Deinde cum dicit amplius nihil tertio modo probat, quia scilicet alia entia non possunt separari a substantia. Accidentia enim non possunt esse nisi in subiecto. Et ideo in consideratione substantiae includitur consideratio accidentium.	2422. Again, none (1026). Then he gives a third proof of his thesis that the other kinds of beings cannot exist apart from substance. For accidents can exist only in a subject, and therefore the study of accidents is included in that of substance.
lib. 12 l. 1 n. 8 Deinde cum dicit testantur autem quarto probat idem, dicens, quod etiam philosophi antiqui testantur ipso facto, quod philosophi consideratio est de substantiis; quia quaerentes causas entis, quaerunt causas substantiae solum. Et hoc fecerunt et quidam moderni, sed tamen differenter. Non enim quaerebant principia et elementa et causas eodem modo, sed diversimode. Nam moderni, scilicet Platonici, dicunt universalia magis esse substantias quam particularia. Dicunt enim, genera, quae sunt universalia, magis esse principia et causas substantiarum quam particularia. Et hoc ideo, quia logice inquirebant de rebus. Universalia enim, quae secundum rationem sunt abstracta a sensibilibus, credebant etiam in rerum natura abstracta fore, et principia particularium. Sed antiqui philosophi ut Democritus et Empedocles, posuerunt substantias et principia rerum esse particularia, ut ignem et terram; non autem hoc commune, quod est corpus.	2423. The ancient philosophers (1027). He gives a fourth proof of his thesis. He says that the ancient philosophers also testify to the fact that the philosopher is concerned with substances, because in seeking the causes of being they looked for the causes only of substance. And some of the moderns also did this, but in a different way; for they did not seek principles, causes and elements in the same way, but differently. For the moderns—the Platonists—claimed that universals are substances to a greater degree than particular things; for they said that genera, which are universals, are principles and causes of substances to a greater degree than particular things. They did this because they investigated things from the viewpoint of dialectics; for they thought that universals, which are separate according to their mode of definition from sensible things, are also separate in reality, and that they are the principles of particular things. But the ancient philosophers, such as Democritus and Empedocles, claimed that the substances and principles of things are particular entities, such as fire and earth, but not this common principle, body.