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1. χρόνος τέλειος: τέλειον characterized as that beyond which nothing is there, beyond which there is nothing—nothing that would co-constitute the being of beings whose character is τέλειον. Here, the τέλειον (πέρας) is said initially of beings insofar as they are understood in their being-at-hand.⁷⁴

τὸ κατ’ ἀρετήν: beings are given already in an entirely peculiar character, namely, as what has its most genuine being-possibility at its disposal. In this case, τέλειον means: beyond which there is nothing there that, as this possibility, makes the being even more genuine. For the consummate flute-player, there is no beyond which (ὑπερβολή) in the sense of the possibility of its most genuine being. With respect to his most genuine being-possibility, there is nothing beyond what he himself is. In this basic determination, there is grounded the possibility of a “carrying-over,” a μεταφέρειν, such as our speaking of a “good thief.” A “good thief” is not a matter of his being a good human being, but rather the meaning of a consummate thief is one who, in his being, has come into his rightful being-possibility, has brought this possibility to its end.⁷⁵

Aristotle explicitly mentions μεταφέρειν;⁷⁶ he himself invokes the carrying-over for a definite purpose. In a carrying-over of speaking, we glean from the immediate and originary addressing, from the immediate and originary meaning of τέλειον, a meaning that is there with it (μετά), and carry it over to what is newly addressed. With this carry-over, in which we carry away a meaning, that which we carry away in particular becomes visible. And, therein becomes visible what was already meant in the basic meaning from which we carried it away. It is not that with the consummate doctor something morally good is meant, but rather in this τέλειος lies the bringing-to-an-end. The μεταφέρειν makes what is genuinely meant by τέλειον visible, whereby the doctor is ἀγαθός, and the thief also is ἀγαθός qua thief, being in another sense κακός. It is no accident that Aristotle, not only here but in a whole series of analyses, always carries out the considerations in this sense of μεταφέρειν.

β. Presentation of the Context of the Treatment of τέλειον

The τέλειον is a determination of the ἀγαθόν, and so has, as with ἀρετή—which we will later also come to know as a fundamental determination of the being of life—a peculiar relation to being-completed. In having something at one’s disposal, having a definite possibility of one’s being at one’s disposal, this being is already held in its end, and I have my genuine being-possibility already in hand as my possession. Τελείωσις:⁷⁷ this peculiar phenomenon of ἔχειν τὸ τέλος is what Aristotle comes to speak of explicitly.

The context is that of Aristotle attempting to explain the character of the

74. Met. Δ 16, 1021 b 12–14.

75. Met. Δ 16, 1021 b 15–17.

76. Met. Δ 16, 1021 b 17 sq.

77. Met. Δ 16, 1021 b 20 sq.