But if
there is something which is eternal and immovable and separable,
clearly the knowledge of it belongs to a theoretical science,-not,
however, to physics (for physics deals with certain movable things)
nor to mathematics, but to a science prior to both. For physics
deals with things which exist separately but are not immovable, and
some parts of mathematics deal with things which are immovable but
presumably do not exist separately, but as embodied in matter; while
the first science deals with things which both exist separately and
are immovable. Now all causes must be eternal, but especially these;
for they are the causes that operate on so much of the divine as
appears to us. There must, then, be three theoretical philosophies,
mathematics, physics, and what we may call theology, since it is
obvious that if the divine is present anywhere, it is present in
things of this sort. And the highest science must deal with the
highest genus. Thus, while the theoretical sciences are more to be
desired than the other sciences, this is more to be desired than the
other theoretical sciences. For one might raise the question whether
first philosophy is universal, or deals with one genus, i.e. some
one kind of being; for not even the mathematical sciences are all
alike in this respect,-geometry and astronomy deal with a certain
particular kind of thing, while universal mathematics applies alike to
all. We answer that if there is no substance other than those which
are formed by nature, natural science will be the first science; but
if there is an immovable substance, the science of this must be
prior and must be first philosophy, and universal in this way, because
it is first.
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