pure consideration of the world, in which nothing more can occur, διαγωγή is a ἡδονή. The interpretation of being tends to eliminate fear of being-there by carrying over what is enigmatic into the familiar. Title of διαγωγή: from this basic determination, there is also encountered the interpretation of the being of human beings, in such a way that the self-interpretation of being-there also aims at making transparent the interpretation of being-there as existence. The highest possibility of existence, such that the threat no longer menaces, is pure θεωρεῖν, and with it the real ἡδονή, science—an interpretation that we, today, no longer embrace insofar as, today, there is no interpretation on the basis of ἡδονή or λύπη, but instead everything is interpreted on the basis of the system.
In Book 1 of the Physics, Aristotle works from out of the traditional manner of treating the question as to what beings are, by laying down the ground upon which all further discussion has to operate: ὄν κινούμενον. The determination of the ὄν as κινούμενον was always noticed, but not in the sense of being considered as the more proximate characteristic of being. The possibility of discussing movement was not such that movement itself would be recognized as the distinctive mode of the being-there of a definite being.
What matters is setting forth the basic respects in terms of which beings in general are to be posited. The discussion of the four causes is nothing other than the discussion of the respects in which being can be posited, the possibility within which beings can be examined with respect to their being. The respects are motivated by the guiding concept of being as being-produced. In Book 1 of the Metaphysics, Aristotle provides the pre-history of these four respects, which did not enter into the consciousness of the time all at once; one after another, these four causes were brought before the eyes of the ancient physiologists, the last of the causes being the most difficult: before one poses any further questions, one must know what the being is, τί τὸ ὄν. This cause was first seen by Plato,23 even though he did not understand its ontological meaning.24
c) The Topic and What Is Co-Given with It
The third Book and those that follow are the fixed foundation for discussing the ὄν κινούμενον through the guidance of the ἀρχαί, such that beings themselves are set free, and the specific being-characters are made to stand in relief. The being-characters are derived from beings themselves: περὶ φύσεως, not περὶ τῶν φύσει ὄντων—an investigation of being, not of beings; not an investigation of the ontic, such that it would be pursued with respect to individual beings, but rather an investigation into the ontological, insofar as beings are addressed in their being.
“Insofar as we are explaining movement, delimiting it or rather having
23. Cf. Met. Α 6, 987 a 29 sqq.
24. See Hs. p. 367.