mountains, earth, sky. All that has the character of the most obvious being, this presence-at-hand (in everydayness).
2. In another respect, what is addressed as being-character is that which is “also there,” “also-at-hand,” in beings of the aforementioned mode of being, in such a way that this presence-at-hand is to “blame,” that constitutes τὸ εἶναι, “the being” of the beings in question.30 Οὐσία in this sense is ἡ ψυχή.31 “Soul” is what constitutes the specific presence-at-hand of beings qua living things, the being-ness of being-in-a-world. Again, a there-character of an entirely peculiar sort (cf. later, the interpretation of ζωή).32
3. Further, οὐσία names what is “also at hand” in a being that is there as a constitutive part or aspect, to such an extent that the removing of the same, the not-there of the same, takes the being in question so to speak out of its there, i.e., out of its being: e.g., a body with its surfaces removed is no longer there as body; lines are not surfaces.33 These aspects are ὁρίζοντα,34 “circumscribing,” “they constitute the limits” and “designate” the being as, mark it as, “that there.”35 Some even suppose (Platonists) that this function of the there-character has “number” (limit) for everything and “in general.”36
4. Moreover, what functions as οὐσία is the τί ἤν εἶναι οὗ ὁ λόγος ὁρισμός, [. . .]οὐσία [. . .] ἑκάστου,37 the “what something is in its what-it-already-was,” the being-character of beings that determines it in its descent, coming from . . . into the there. The being whose being constitutes the τί ἤν εἶναι is designated as ἕκαστον, “the particular,” the τί ἤν εἶναι constitutes the particularity of beings.
5. Aristotle collects the aforementioned being-characters into two modes of being-ness, which are determined as 1. “last presence-at-hand,”38 2. as being “what” there, specifically in the sense of the being-there “for itself” in its own place.39 The there-character of such being is designated as εἶδος, “look,” “appearing-thus-and-so.”40
The five being-characters that have been gleaned: ὑποκείμενον, αἴτιον ἐνυπάρχον, μόριον ἐνυπάρχον ὁρίζον, τί ἤν εἶναι (τὸ καθ’ ἕκαστον), εἶδος, signify, more or less transparently, a there of beings. In order to understand them as there-characters and thereby grasp the meaning of οὐσία in its motivated
30. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 15: αἴτιον (τοῦ εἶναι) ἐνυπάρχον.
31. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 16.
32. See p. 45 ff., 353 sq.
33. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 17 sqq.: μόρια ἐνυπάρχοντα [. . .] ὧν ἀναιρουμένων ἀναιρεἶται τὸ ὅλον, οἷον ἐπιπέδον οῶμα [. . .] καί ἐπίπεδον γραμμῆς.
34. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 17.
35. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 18: τόδε τι ομαίνοντα.
36. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 20: καὶ ὅλως ὁ ἀριθμος δοκεῖ τιος τοιοῦτος εἶναι.
37. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 22 sq.
38. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 24: ὑποκείμενον ἔσχατον.
39. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 25: ὃ ἂν τόδε τι ὄν καὶ χωριστὸν ᾖ.
40. Met. Δ 8, 1017 b 26.