The Metaphysics had its genesis in a set of independent writings whose original aim was primarily educational. Thus, it cannot be considered the exposition of a perfectly finished system, but rather a work that approaches different topics across fourteen books. Nevertheless, its overarching conception ultimately gives rise to the science “beyond physics,” that is, first philosophy.
At Zenda we reproduce part of the introduction written by Carlos Megino Rodríguez to this new edition of the Metaphysics (Gredos) by Aristotle.
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INTRODUCTION
I
Origin of the Work
Aristotle did not write any Metaphysics. The work thus titled that has reached us is the result of a school-notes compilation carried out, according to tradition, by Andrónico de Rodas in the 1st century BCE. According to Plutarch, Andrónico made Aristotle’s writings that had reached Rome—brought from Athens by Sulla—available to the public, also producing catalogs of them. Porphyry further tells us that Andrónico did not merely disseminate the writings, but undertook a topical arrangement, grouping the texts according to the disciplines they treated. It is known from ancient lists of Aristotle’s works that Andrónico sometimes reassembled different treatises into a single one and bestowed new titles on works previously known under a different title. This must have been the case for the metaphysical treatises. It is probable, however, that an initial version of the work in ten books (omitting Books II, V, XI and XII) existed before Andrónico’s edition, possibly as the result of the compilation work of Eudemus of Rhodes, a disciple of Aristotle, since in the oldest catalogs of his works we know that even before Andrónico’s edition some lessons had already been grouped into longer treatises, as is the case with the eight books of the Política. This first version would be the one that appears under the title metaphysiká in the list of works in the Vita Aristotelis by Hesychius (also known as Vita Menagiana), a list that would date back either to Aristion of Ceos or to Hermippus of Ephesus (both from the late third century BCE). To this version, Andrónico would add the rest of the books, forming the edition of thirteen books (Book II would be included in Book I) cited in Ptolemy’s catalog as perì tôn metà tà physiká.
Thus, the Metaphysics, as we know it today, would be the result of a compilation of independent Aristotelian writings, ultimately grouped by Andrónico according to the criterion of their thematic affinity, since all of them would speak of or relate to what Aristotle understood as first philosophy. It is probable that Andrónico completed a scholarly editing task consisting in giving the form of a treatise (sýntagma) to a series of heterogeneous school notes (hypomnémata) originated at different moments and under different circumstances, thus endowing them with a thematic unity, probably based on a single conception of the object of the discipline they treated: what lies beyond physical beings (tà metà tà physiká).
II
The Title of the Treatise
The title Metafísica does not, as we have seen, come from Aristotle. In fact, there is no record that he even knew the term, either to designate a treatise or to name a philosophical discipline. He spoke only of “wisdom,” “first philosophy,” or, simply, “the science that is sought.” What, over time, came to designate the collection of writings we now know as Metafísica stems from the expression metaphysiká or metà tà physiká. According to Düring, this expression is due to Andrónico, though other authors, such as Moraux, believe it could go back to Aristotle of Ceos. In any case, it seems to be the designation that a post-Aristotelian editor adopted to name a compilation of school lectures that were conceived and written originally in an independent manner, and which, initially, lacked any title or denomination, save perhaps for Book V.
No is it entirely clear what the exact sense of the expression is. According to a very unlikely hypothesis, tà metà tà physiká would have a bibliographic sense, since it would reflect the order that metaphysical texts would occupy in Aristotle’s lists of books, after the physical books. However, beyond the appearance of the expression in catalogs, the earliest testimonies we have of its use by later authors refer to the content of these books with it. Or, to be more exact, to the discipline that deals with a certain class of objects: those that lie beyond the physical. At this point, two interpretations are observed. One, which limits itself to considering these objects within the realm of reality. This is how Simplicius, for example, treats it, where metà tà physiká means epékeina tôn physikôn, “beyond the physical beings,” i.e., beings that transcend the physical in reality due to their immaterial character, so that this expression would indicate the science that, also expressed as theological science and as first philosophy, would study those objects. The other interpretation is that which considers them in relation to our knowledge. This is the view of Alexander of Aphrodisias, for whom metà tà physiká is an alternative term for wisdom and theological science, since it designates the discipline that, in the order of sciences, comes after physics in relation to us, i.e., that studies what, in the order of reality, goes before physical beings, but which, in the order of our knowledge, is posterior, since it lies beyond the sensible. Or, in other words, the meaning of metà tà physiká is to express an order of inquiry or study based on our capacity for knowledge, not on the nature of the object studied: first there is what is most cognizable to us, the physical beings, which are sensible, and afterward (meta), what is less cognizable, because it is immaterial and intelligible, even if it is first by nature. This interpretation follows a didactic criterion, according to which what the title would indicate is that the study of this discipline must come after the study of physics.
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Author: Aristotle. Title: Metaphysics. Translation: Tomás Calvo Martínez. Publisher: Gredos. Retailer: Todos tus libros.