Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l5/c1

Chapter 1 Beginning

Latin	English
METHAPHISICE ARISTOTILIS LIBER QUINTUS	Aristotle Metaphysics Book 5 (D)
ƿ Principium dicitur aliud quidem unde utique aliquid rei ↵ movebitur primum, ut longitudinis et vie hinc quidem rhoc ↵ principium1, ex opposito autem alterum. Aliud unde utique optime fiet unumquodque, ut doctrine non a primo et rei principio aliquando inchoandum est sed unde facillime utique addiscet. Aliud unde primum generatur inexistente, ut navis ↵ sedile et domus fundamentum, et animalium alii cor alii cerebrum alii quodcumque sortiantur tale putant. Aliud * unde fit primum non inexistente et unde primum motus natus initiari ↵ et permutatio, ut puer ex patre et matre et bellum ex conuicio. Aliud cuius secundum voluntatem moventur quae moventur et mutantur quae mutantur, ut secundum civitates principatus et potestates et imperia et tyrannides; principia dicuntur et artes, et harum architectonice maxime. Amplius unde cognos↵cibilis res * primum, et hoc principium dicitur re, ut demonstrationum suppositiones. Totiens autem et causae dicunƿtur; omnes enim causae principia.	Chapter 1. BEGINNING means (1) that part of a thing from which one would start first, e.g a line or a road has a beginning [13a] in either of the contrary directions. (2) That from which each thing would best be originated, e.g. even in learning we must sometimes begin not from the first point and the beginning of the subject, but from the point from which we should learn most easily. (3) That from which, as an immanent part, a thing first comes to be, e,g, as the keel of a ship and the foundation of a house, while in animals some suppose the heart, others the brain, others some other part, to be of this nature. (4) That from which, not as an immanent part, a thing first comes to be, and from which the movement or the change naturally first begins, as a child comes from its father and its mother, and a fight from abusive language. (5) That at whose will that which is moved is moved and that which changes changes, e.g. the magistracies in cities, and oligarchies and monarchies and tyrannies, are called arhchai, and so are the arts, and of these especially the architectonic arts. (6) That from which a thing can first be known, – this also is called the beginning of the thing, e.g. the hypotheses are the beginnings of demonstrations. (Causes are spoken of in an equal number of senses; for all causes are beginnings.)
Omnium igitur principiorum commune est primum esse unde aut est aut fit aut cognoscitur. Horum autem haec quidem inexistentia sunt illa vero extra. Qua↵propter et natura principium et elementum et mens et voluntas et substantia et quod * cuius causa; multorum enim et cognitionis et motus principium est bonum et malum.	It is common, then, to all beginnings to be the first point from which a thing either is or comes to be or is known; but of these some are immanent in the thing and others are outside. Hence the nature of a thing is a beginning, and so is the element of a thing, and thought and will, and essence, and the final cause – for the good and the beautiful are the beginning both of the knowledge and of the movement of many things.