Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy [149-151]
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then the elements must not be, contrary to the opinion of these ancient thinkers, confinable to a determinate region of Being, but must be related to beings just insofar as they are beings" (1003a28ff.). This theme of research, of what is to be apprehended, is made up of "the first causes of beings as beings" (1003a31), the first causes of Being, that from which Being as such is to be determined. Here lies the catch, the double concept of a science of Being as both ontic explanation and ontological interpretation. Causes of beings: the theme is the Being of beings. Causes of Being: beings are the cause of Being. The problem can be discussed in a positive way only if we have a sufficient grasp of both concepts of the first science. We will begin with the first science as science of Being oriented toward ontological interpretation.
Being is the theme. This science obviously has more to say than simply: Being is Being. Yet the object is always Being. Just as geometry always deals with space, physics with material nature, and biology with organic nature, so the first science ever treats of beings as such and in general, of beings just insofar as they are, of Being. καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸ πάλαι τε καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ ζητούμενον καὶ ἀεὶ ἀπορούμενον, τί τὸ ὄν ["what is always sought, and always leads to an impasse, already long ago and still now: what is Being"].24
The idea of this science is determined more precisely in r 2: the idea of the science of Being (1003a33-l004a9).
1. The unity of the object and of the thematic approach (r 2, 1003a33-b19).
2. To the object there corresponds an originally genuine kind of givenness, and indeed a direct one, αἴσθησις (1003b19-22).
3. The mode of self-pre-givenness (phenomenology, ontology).
4. ον and ἕν: co-originality (1003b22-1004a2).
5. Science of Being and sciences of concretely different regions of Being (1004a2-9).
Regarding 1: First of all, the unity of the thematic horizon: ᾗ ον, "as being," with respect to Being, toward which everything is oriented. Being is the most universal.25 Plato: κοινωνία τῶν γενών. Are the γένη that to which the problematic 01 this science is ultimately reduced? The question is taken up in Met. B 3.27 Met. B develops a series of problems, all of which serve to determine the object of this science. There we have what is decisive for the matter at issue and what is most important for understanding the new Aristotelian problematic over and against Plato.
24. Met. Z 1, 1028b2ff
25. See supplement no. 13, p. 161f., and Morchen transcription, no. 69, p. 216.
26. Cf. Sophist, 254B7f.
27. 998b14ff.