Therefore if there is to be results follow; if they are not universals
but of knowledge of the principles there must be the nature of
individuals, they will not be other principles prior to them, namely
those knowable; for the knowledge of anything is that are
universally predicated of them.
Book IV
1
THERE is a science which investigates being as being and the
attributes which belong to this in virtue of its own nature. Now
this is not the same as any of the so-called special sciences; for
none of these others treats universally of being as being. They cut
off a part of being and investigate the attribute of this part; this
is what the mathematical sciences for instance do. Now since we are
seeking the first principles and the highest causes, clearly there
must be some thing to which these belong in virtue of its own
nature. If then those who sought the elements of existing things
were seeking these same principles, it is necessary that the
elements must be elements of being not by accident but just because it
is being. Therefore it is of being as being that we also must grasp
the first causes.
2
There are many senses in which a thing may be said to 'be', but
all that 'is' is related to one central point, one definite kind of
thing, and is not said to 'be' by a mere ambiguity. Everything which
is healthy is related to health, one thing in the sense that it
preserves health, another in the sense that it produces it, another in
the sense that it is a symptom of health, another because it is
capable of it.
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