Ethical Handbook

Concerning this Second Edition

there should be no mention of such things. For this confidence of theirs clearly arises from an ignorance of Logic original: Dialecticarum; referring to the formal rules of reasoning and categorization. or Metaphysics The branch of philosophy dealing with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts like being, knowing, and substance.. But if anyone were willing to focus their care and thought on this—to more deeply understand those most universal reasons applicable to all things, which Logic or Metaphysics treats—they would finally find that some degree of amplitude The quality of taking up space or having volume. belongs to every Being original: Ens; a fundamental philosophical term for anything that exists. whatsoever, insofar as it is a Being. Nor should this seem more strange than the fact that matter belongs to all things. Certainly, if this were not the case, that Cause which is called Matter could not be treated by the Logicians.

9. To summarize the matter briefly: just as everything that comes to be is understood to arise from four Causes: the Efficient, the Material, the Formal, and the Final These are Aristotle’s four causes: the agent that makes it (Efficient), the stuff it is made of (Material), the design or shape it follows (Formal), and the purpose for which it exists (Final).; the Efficient and the Final causes touch the thing only from an external perspective, while the Matter and the Form constitute the very Essence The fundamental nature or "whatness" of a thing that makes it what it is. of the thing. In the same way, that which is constituted is called the Effect in relation to the Efficient cause, and the Intended original: Destinatum in relation to the Final cause. Thus, in relation to Matter and Form—which contain the whole Essence—it can correctly, though perhaps not so elegantly, be called the Essentiated original: Essentiatum; a technical term for a thing that has been given a specific nature or existence., or something having an Essence, which is the very same thing as a Being. From this it follows that Being, insofar as it is Being, embraces some kind of Matter within itself. And what, I ask, is