---
date: '2023-09-15'
description: aristotle's metaphysics on being qua being, wisdom as episteme versus techne, substances as primary sense of being.
id: Being qua being
modified: 2026-10-28 11:36:32 GMT-04:00
seealso:
  - '[[thoughts/Metaphysics|notes]]'
  - '[[library/Metaphysics|Metaphysics, Aristotle]]'
tags:
  - philosophy
  - philos1aa3
title: Being qua being
created: '2023-09-15'
published: '2023-09-15'
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# Wisdom

Aristotle calls wisdom knowledge of first principles and causes. Its generality comes from explaining what other kinds of inquiry presuppose. Knowing the cause also lets someone explain and teach why something happens (_Metaphysics_ I.1–2):

- _Techne_ is reasoned knowledge of making, such as building a house.
- _Episteme_ is demonstrative knowledge of what must be so.
- _Phronesis_ is practical wisdom about how to act well.

These distinctions concern the objects and aims of knowledge (_Nicomachean Ethics_ VI.3–5). Aristotle values theoretical inquiry for its own sake. In _Metaphysics_ I.2, its independence means that knowing is its end; a craft aims at a further product.

Intrinsic values of [[thoughts/Epistemology|epistemology]]? What makes understanding worth pursuing when it has no further use?

# Passage

_Bk. 4 Ch. 2 (p. 135)_

## Priority of substances

Being qua being means being considered just insofar as it is. A special science selects a domain, such as numbers or living things. Metaphysics asks about principles and attributes that belong to things insofar as they are (_Metaphysics_ IV.1, [`1003a21`](https://github.com/aarnphm/aarnphm.github.io/commit/1003a21)–32).

> \[!question\]- How can one science study the different senses of being?
>
> Aristotle’s answer in IV.2 is their common dependence on substance.
>
> A diet preserves health; a complexion indicates health. The word “healthy” refers to health through different relations.
> Likewise, qualities, changes and privations are understood through the substances whose qualities, changes or privations they are ([`1003a33`](https://github.com/aarnphm/aarnphm.github.io/commit/1003a33)–b19).

An individual human is _a substance_; their colour is a quality of that human $\to$ <span class="marker marker-h2">substance supplies the focal point</span>.

Sources: [Metaphysics I](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html), [IV](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.4.iv.html), and [Nicomachean Ethics VI](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.6.vi.html).