One must clearly bring to mind the specific moment in time. The manuscript was composed at the end of the autumn of 1922, thanks to a request made to Heidegger by Paul Natorp from Marburg, in which he asked him to submit a memorandum regarding the phenomenological interpretations of Aristotle, on which he was then working.

In fact, the manuscript served as the impetus for the invitation to Heidegger to take a professorship at Marburg, an invitation that took place in the summer of 1923. At that time, I was, only for the spring semester, in Freiburg near Heidegger, and there I was introduced for the first time by him to an understanding of Aristotle, which, because the young lecturer Heidegger was phenomenologically gifted, initiated a true revolution.

Aristotle really began to speak to us in the present tense. [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]