Aristotle Metaphysics

[karene]

Aristotle's Metaphysics

Metaphysics is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle)
The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 340BC)

Introduction to Aristotle

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) was the first philosopher to formalise the subject of Metaphysics. As Aristotle explains, Metaphysics is the study of the One Substance (and its Properties) which exists and causes all things, and is therefore the necessary foundation for all human knowledge. Aristotle (and Leibniz) were correct to realize that One Substance must have Properties that cause matter's interconnected activity and Motion. Though Aristotle did not know what existed, he explained the scientific method such that we could determine this ourselves. Thus Aristotle's ideas are very important, for within them are the clues to the solution of this most profound of all problems, 'what exists', and thus what it means to be 'human'.
Ancient Greek Philosophy, of which Aristotle was the high point, marked a fundamental turning point in the evolution of humanity and our ideas about our existence in the universe. Over the past 2,500 years Aristotle's philosophy has directly contributed to the evolution of our current science / reason based society. Thus it is unfortunate that many people imagine our post-modern society to now be so 'enlightened' that Aristotle (and other Ancient Greek Philosophers) have become irrelevant. In fact the opposite is true. As Bertrand Russell observed (History of Western Philosophy), it was the Ancient Greek Philosophers who first discovered and discussed the fundamental Principles of Philosophy, Physics and Metaphysics, and most significantly, little has been added to their knowledge since. As Einstein wrote;

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous. There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

Aristotle's Metaphysics

At the heart of Metaphysics is Substance and its Properties, which exists and causes all things, and is therefore the necessary foundation for all human knowledge. Aristotle and Leibniz were correct to realize that One Substance must have Properties that account for matter's interconnected activity and Motion.

The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle)
There must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity.
(Aristotle, Metaphysics, 340BC)

The ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the differentiation of the changes only exists eminently as in their source. ... I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general.
(Gottfried Leibniz, 1670)

The solution is to realize that Space exists as a wave-medium and contains spherical wave-motions that cause matter and its interconnected activity/change. (Also see Kant, who clearly realized the unique importance of Space as being a priori (necessary) for us to be able to experience and sense the world around us, and that Metaphysics (and thus Physics) depend upon this a priori knowledge.)
The following quotes from Aristotle's Metaphysics, are very important, for within them are the clues to the solution of the problem of 'what exists', as we shall endeavour to explain and solve.

It is clear, then, that wisdom is knowledge having to do with certain principles and causes. But now, since it is this knowledge that we are seeking, we must consider the following point: of what kind of principles and of what kind of causes is wisdom the knowledge? (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points (concepts and truth) and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Demonstration is also something necessary, because a demonstration cannot go otherwise than it does, ... And the cause of this lies with the primary premises/principles. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

For those who wish to make good progress must start well; for subsequent progress depends on the resolution of the first puzzles, and one cannot solve these without knowing the difficulty and the confusion of our minds. So we must first set out all the difficulties, both for these reasons and also because those who inquire without first setting out the difficulties are like those who do not know in which direction they should walk, and in addition do not even know whether they would recognize that which they are looking for. For the end is not clear to these, but it is for those who have begun with the puzzles. And also from the point of view of judging that man is better off who has heard, as it were, all the rival and opposed positions. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

... it is impossible that the primary existent, being eternal, should be destroyed.
... that among entities there must be some cause which moves and combines things.
... about its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Some philosophers have fallen into this opinion in the same way that they have into other paradoxes. They are confronted by an esoteric argument, find it impossible to refute and end up by giving in to it and accepting its conclusion! This explains the confusion of some, ... the basis of the cure is definition. Now a definition arises from the necessity that words have some meaning; for the definition is the account of which the word is the sign. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Rather, they start this, displaying it to the senses, .... and go on to offer more or less rigorous demonstrations of the per se attributes of their proprietary genera. This sort of procedure is inductive and it is as plain as a pikestaff that it does not amount to a demonstration of essence or of what it is to be a thing. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

... a science must deal with a subject and its properties. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
.... the science we are after is not about mathematicals either (none of them, you see, is separable). (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
But also philosophy is not about perceptible substances (they, you see, are prone to destruction). (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
However, there is a science higher than natural science. For in truth nature is but one genus of that which is.  It is a science whose subject matter is universal and which is exclusively concerned with primary substance. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
It is the principles and causes of the things that are that we are seeking, and clearly it is their principles and causes just as things that are ... It is, however, vital not to overlook the question of what it is to be a thing and the definitional account of how it is what it is. If we leave these out, scientific inquiry is mere shadow boxing ... the science of it is First Philosophy - and such a science is universal just because it is first. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

The Metaphysics of Space and Motion

If One thing, Space, Exists, how can a second thing exist within the One thing Space that gives rise to Matter and its Motion?
As Aristotle importantly and profoundly says;

... there is some other cause of the change. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, as we would say, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Unless the further factor is active, there will still be no movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
There must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

I feel quite sure that if Aristotle had known of Huygens' work on Wave-Motion, along with the work of Newton and Leibniz, (who all lived several thousand years later in human history) then Aristotle would have solved the problem of how Matter exists in this Space of our Universe. Unfortunately no formal knowledge of Wave-Motion existed then, hence there was no obvious solution (as there now is.)
Thus he was confronted, along with all Philosophers, with the Problem of the One and the Many;

Now there are several ways in which the one and the many are in opposition. One of these lies in the fact that the one and the many are opposed as indivisible and divisible. What is either divided or divisible is accounted for as a kind of plurality, whereas what is indivisible or not divided is said to be a unity. (Aristotle)
Multiplicity cannot be derived from a necessarily single thing. (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 340BC)

The solution is to realize that Space is Moving, that it is the Motion of Space which is the second thing that can Exist within the One thing. This Motion is a Wave Motion so we are simply saying that Space is Vibrating, Space is a Wave Medium and has Waves flowing through it. (So we see that Aristotle's required 'Activity' is in fact a Wave-Activity.)
Thus we see how the second existent, Motion, exists within the One Fundamental Existent, Space.

If we now return to Aristotle, we also see how the Wave-Motion of Space is consistent with his Metaphysical Principles, we need simply make two additions to his sentence (in bold);

And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence (Space) and in the properties (Wave Medium/Motion) which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Which thus explains why:

The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

And thus we now consider the Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space, as a simple solution to the problem that the great Aristotle formalized so long ago. For Aristotle was largely correct, there is One Substance, Space, which Exists as a Wave-Medium (Aristotle's Prime Mover) and thus Space is Moving (Vibrating) due to this Wave-Motion.

Note: Space is exceedingly rigid and only allows a tiny displacement/motion, thus the velocity of waves is VERY fast (the velocity of light c) and the wavelength is very short (10-12 meters) thus Space is vibrating at something like a hundred billion billion cycles/s.
As Albert Einstein wrote;

The subtlety of the concept of space was enhanced by the discovery that there exist no completely rigid bodies. All bodies are elastically deformable. (Albert Einstein)



Properties of One Substance / Space
On a Perpetual Finite Spherical Universe within an Infinite Space
It is interesting (and perhaps surprising), that 2,500 years ago Aristotle had already considered and rejected such an origin (Big Bang) for the universe;

Alternatively, suppose we were to accept the mythical genesis of the world from night or the natural philosophers' claim that 'all things were originally together.' We are still left with the same impossible consequence. How is everything to be set in motion, unless there is actually to be some cause of movement? Matter is not going to set itself in motion - its movement depends on a motive cause. (Aristotle)

The Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the WSM describes a perpetual finite system within an Infinite Eternal Space. Space has always existed, as have the Wave-Motions which flow through this Space. Creation, like the Particle and the boundary, are human constructions which do not physically exist.

I will only briefly summarize the philosophical logic of One Space here.

Space is Infinite
As only One thing, Space, exists, there can be no boundary to Space (as a boundary is between two things) thus Space is unbounded and therefore Infinite. As Blake famously wrote;

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would be seen as it is, infinite. (William Blake)

Spinoza perfectly states the logic of One Infinite Substance;

No two or more substances can have the same attribute and it appertains to the nature of substance that it should exist. It must therefore exist finitely or infinitely. But not finitely. For it would then be limited by some other substance of the same nature which also of necessity must exist: and then two substances would be granted having the same attribute, which is absurd. It will exist, therefore, infinitely. (Spinoza)

Space is Continuous
There can be no Particles because Particles require two things - the Particle and the Space around the Particle, thus Space is a continuous medium. Or as Aristotle says;

This shows us two things: you cannot have parts of the infinite and the infinite is indivisible. (Aristotle)

Space is Ageless and Eternal
There are two separate arguments for an ageless and eternal Space which logically support one another;
i) As only one thing, Space, exists, there can be no creation of Space as creation requires two things (Space, and that which is not Space but created Space) thus Space is Ageless and Eternal.

A substance cannot be produced from anything else : it will therefore be its own cause, that is, its essence necessarily involves existence, or existence appertains to the nature of it. (Spinoza, 1673)

ii) Time is a consequence of the Finite Velocity of Waves in Space, thus it takes time for a Wave to flow from place to place. Time does not exist as a thing in itself, it is, like the Particle, an effect of Waves in Space, not a cause! Thus Time only applies to Waves in Space (i.e. matter) and not to Space itself. Therefore Space was not created for this requires the concept of time (that the Space that now exists was created at some time in the past) thus Space is Ageless and Eternal. (Space simply exists.)

It need hardly be pointed out that with things that do not change there is no illusion with respect to time, given the assumption of their unchangeability. (Aristotle)

Motion is Eternal
Motion must always have been in existence, and the same can be said for time itself, since it is not even possible for there to be an earlier and a later if time does not exist. Movement, then, is also continuous in the way in which time is - indeed time is either identical to movement or is some affection of it. (There is, however, only one continuous movement, namely spatial movement, and of this only circular rotation.) (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Aristotle was quite remarkable, and here he alludes to the fact that Time and Motion are intimately interconnected, that Time did not exist as something in itself but was caused by the Motion of Matter. This is a remarkable discovery for once we realize that Space-Motion must replace Space-Time as the fundamental Existents, then we can clearly see the error of both Physics (Einstein's Four Dimensional Space-Time Continuum) and Philosophy (Kant's Space, Time and Causation as a priori).

I should also like to briefly add here that there is another form of continuous Motion than circular motion which never occurred to Aristotle, that of Spherical Standing Waves in Space, where Spherical Waves are continually flowing In and Out through the Wave-Center.

It is very important to realize how incorrect ideas can BLIND us to obvious ideas. An obvious example of this is Aristotle's error about orbits of planets (continuous movement) being perfect circles - which lasted for two thousand years! Kepler spent years trying to solve the problems of the orbits of the planets before finally realizing that they were in fact Ellipsoidal.

Kepler's discovery of elliptical orbits heralded the emergence of modern cosmology because, instead of imposing a preconceived idea about the way the heavens ought to be, he had let himself discover the way they actually were. He had allowed the data to speak for themselves. Thus the ellipse represents the triumph of empiricism over dogmatism, of commitment to mathematical accuracy over submission to ancient authority. (Wertheim, 1997)

Just like circular orbits, the conception of both the Particle and Time as fundamental existents, has blinded us to more obvious solution. Once the Wave Structure of Matter in Space is understood it becomes obvious that the Focal Point (Wave-Center) is the cause of the Point Particle Effect of Matter, and that the finite velocity of the Wave Motion of Space is the cause of Time.

On the Necessary Connection of Space, Motion, Matter & Time
How is it that we can sense the Motion of Matter in Space & Time? If Matter is something different to Motion then what is the connection between Motion and Matter? As Aristotle says;

... there being two causes of which we have defined in the Physics, they seem to have a glimpse of them, that of matter and that from which the motion comes, indistinctly though, and in no way clearly. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Aristotle was aware that we sense the Motion of Matter in Space & Time, but he did not understand the connection between these four apparently separate things (Space, Time, Matter and Motion). Only now can we demonstrate that Matter is a particular Form (Shape) of (Wave) Motion, a Spherical Standing Wave Motion of Space, thus we really sense the Motion of Motion in Space, thereby uniting Space, Matter & Motion. And from the previous section we also realise that it is this wave Motion aspect of Matter that causes the phenomena of Time, thus solving the separation between these previously distinct things.

This is further consistent when we consider electricity and the Motion of electrons (actually the motion of the FWave-Center of the SSW), for we all know that electrical energy can be converted to Motion energy by an electric motor (and vice versa). We now see how electricity is connected to Motion, for the electrons themselves are a form of Motion, the Spherical Standing Wave Motion of Space.
Though it is more complex, this is also true of our minds and how by thinking we can move matter (e.g. my mind causing my fingers to move to type these letters) because mind is also caused by (and is nothing more than) the relative (wave) motions of matter which is ultimately the relative motions of Space.
As Aristotle profoundly says;

... about its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Aristotle-Philosopher.htm