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[1025b]
[3]
It is the principles and causes of the
things which are that we are seeking; and clearly
of the things which are qua being. There is a
cause of health and physical fitness; and mathematics has principles
and elements and causes; and in general every intellectual science or
science which involves intellect deals with causes and principles,
more or less exactly or simply considered.But all these sciences single out some
existent thing or class, and concern themselves with that; not with
Being unqualified, nor qua Being, nor do they
give any account of the essence; but starting from it, some making it
clear to perception, and others assuming it as a hypothesis, they
demonstrate, more or less cogently, the essential attributes of the
class with which they are dealing.Hence obviously there is no demonstration of
substance or essence from this method of approach, but some other
means of exhibiting it. And similarly they say nothing as to whether
the class of objects with which they are concerned exists or not;
because the demonstration of its essence and that of its existence
belong to the same intellectual process.And since physical science also happens to
deal with a genus of Being
[20]
(for it deals with the sort of substance which contains in itself
the principle of motion and rest), obviously it is neither a practical
nor a productive science.For in the case of things produced the principle of motion (either
mind or art or some kind of potency) is in the producer; and in the
case of things done the will is the agent—for the thing done
and the thing willed are the same. Thus if every intellectual activity
is either practical or productive or speculative, physics will be a
speculative science; but speculative about that kind of Being which
can be moved, and about formulated substance for the most part only
qua inseparable from matter.But we must not fail to observe
how the essence and the formula exist, since
without this our inquiry is ineffectual.Now of things defined, i.e. of essences, some apply in the sense
that "snub" does, and some in the sense that "concave" does. The
difference is that "snub" is a combination of form with matter;
because the "snub" is a concave nose , whereas concavity
is independent of sensible matter.
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