Aristotle on Metaphysics(2004) - Bibotu.com

BEING QUA BEING AND PRIMARY BEING 91Every science investigates being; for if a science investigates something,it investigates something that is. Otherwise there is nothing there toinvestigate. Biology, for example, investigates beings in so far as they areliving beings; botany investigates beings in so far as they are plants;arithmetic in so far as they are countable; geometry in so far as they areextended, etc. So the view that every science is of something that is —of abeing—supposes that the object of knowledge, i.e. what is known, must beor exist. What distinguishes metaphysics from other sciences is not,therefore, that it investigates being; for every science does that. Rather,metaphysics, unlike other sciences, investigates being qua being; i.e. itinvestigates beings not in so far as they are this or that kind of beings (livingbeings, plants, countable and extended beings, etc.), but simply in so far asthey are beings—things that are.In the immediately following lines, <strong>Aristotle</strong> clarifies thischaracterization of metaphysics:Now this [i.e. metaphysics] is not identical with any of the so-calledpartial [i.e. specialized] sciences. For none of the other sciences treatsin a general way [katholou] of being qua being; rather, they cut offsome part of being and investigate what belongs to this part—as do,for example, the mathematical sciences.(1003 a 22–26)The image of being as a big chunk, with each specialized science cuttingout a different part for its attention, is markedly metaphorical, but thepoint behind it is that one science, metaphysics, is unlike the rest, in that itinvestigates all beings. If a science investigates beings in so far as they are,for example, living beings, it will not investigate all beings, for not allbeings are living beings. But if a science investigates beings simply in so faras they are, then it will investigate all beings; for evidently all beings are.Metaphysics, therefore, is distinguished by its complete generality anduniversality: it investigates all beings.But metaphysics not only investigates all beings, it investigates all beingsin a completely general way (katholou): ‘For none of the other sciencestreats in a general way (katholou) of being qua being’, 1003 a 23–24. If wesuppose that there is a definite number of specialized sciences, thenperhaps the sum of the specialized sciences will also investigate all beings;but metaphysics is evidently not the mere sum of the specialized sciences.What distinguishes metaphysics, therefore, is not only what it investigates,i.e. all beings, but also how it investigates this, i.e. in a completely generalway. Indeed, it is natural to think that the phrase ‘qua being’, in the