Aristotle's "Metaphysics" is a work that from the very beginning signifies its content: "all human beings by nature desire to know." Humanity, as a species, all people have an insatiable appetite to understand, to gain knowledge of the world and of their own nature.

This quest for knowledge, whether scientific or philosophical, leads to the great question of the first principles and causes of things, the subject of Book II of the Metaphysics. The methodology of the search and the avoidance of infinite regression are provided in Book I.

The search for first principles inevitably leads to the exploration of the nature of the One, as well as its primal opposition to the many, the subject of Book X. Additionally, the first two chapters of Book K are provided, as they return to the issues of Book II. Finally, in an appendix, the definitions of the One from Book IV of the Metaphysics are given.

ARISTOTLE METAPHYSICS ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE ARISTOTLE