made them blind to the phenomena. But they were compelled by the truth itself” (WP, 10). But what truth? What is the “matter itself” that compelled them and serves as the basis for Aristotle’s own articulation of the four causes? Noting that the good is seen as an end for movement and that the eidos, as what I hold before me in advance (what I have in view), is given first place by Aristotle among the causes (983a29; τὸ διὰ τὶ πρῶτον), Heidegger quickly reaches what is for him the important conclusion: that not only movement, but production is the basis on which Aristotle arrives at his four causes. The notes are very clear on this point: “Basis: beings as having been produced and in that way being there”; “All 4 αἰτία from the fundamental experience of producing [Herstellen], being-produced [Hergestelltsein]—a ground that Aristotle did not see in this explicitness and also did not need to see” (WP, 10).11 Even allowing for the fragmentary and laconic nature of the notes, this momentous conclusion appears to be reached much too quickly. Indeed, here as elsewhere, one gets the impression of a thesis already decided in advance and seeking only quick and superficial confirmation. Note also that the thesis can be confirmed only by leaving the Physics. Why cannot the fundamental experience here be that of natural growth (φύεσθαι), in short, of nature (φύσις)? As we have seen, it is by appealing to the movement of natural growth that Aristotle himself in the Physics justifies the identification of nature with form.
The next class begins with some observations on the term archê. Insisting that it is a determination of being, Heidegger makes the following two points: aitia is the form that the archê takes in knowing that grasps and grounds; the archê can also be the principle of knowing itself as a movement. That Heidegger is here commenting on the first chapter of Metaphysics Δ dedicated to the notion of archê becomes clear when he cites the following passage from it: “It is common to all principles to be the first thing from which a thing either is or becomes or is known” (1013a17–19; πασῶν μὲν οὐν κοινὸν τῶν ἀρχῶν τὸ πρῶτον εἶναι ὅθεν ἢ ἐστιν ἢ γίγνεται ἢ γιγνώσκεται). A principle is that from which the thing itself in its coming to be and being as well as our knowledge of it originate. He also cites Aristotle’s claim in the same chapter that “all causes are principles” (1013a17; παντὰ γὰρ τὰ αἴτια ἀρχαί). Heidegger makes the important comment, given what we have seen to be his overall thesis, that aitia is “a way in which ἀρχή is objective, is functional for grasping—producing” (WP, 11–12). The point is that it is only in grasping and producing something that I understand the origin of its being as its cause. In other words, why would I understand a