Metaphysics Book I
“All men by nature desire to know” (p. 1552). Wonder, which begins with “obvious difficulties,” leads to philosophy (p. 1554):“For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun and the stars, and about the genesis of the universe” (p. 1554). “Evidently we have to acquire knowledge of the original causes (“αἰτίω” — αιτία (aitia))...” (p. 1555).
In general, there are four “causes” or “explanations” (in other words, there are four “reasons why”* something is the way it is): 1. Substance or essence (formal cause) 2. Matter or substratum (material cause) 3. Source of change (efficient cause) 4. The end — the “good” — which is the aim of all generation and change (final cause). Consider a statue made of stone. Assume that it was brought into being because the artist wanted to create something beautiful. In this case, the shape is the essence of the statue; it is the basic form of the statue that defines what it is. Stone is the material cause. The art of stone carving is the efficient cause — through this art the statue came into being. The final cause is beauty, since this is the reason why the statue was made. Aristotle criticizes the arguments and theories of several Presocratic philosophers such as Thales, Anaximenes, and Diogenes (pp. 1556). He states that their materialistic philosophies fail to explain beauty and goodness:“For surely it is not likely either that fire or earth or any such element should be the reason why things manifest goodness and beauty both in their being and in their coming to be...” (p. 1557).
* See Bailly: Dictionnaire Grec Francais