IOANNIS PHILOPONI

IN ARISTOTELIS PHYSICORUM

LIBROS TRES PRIORES

COMMENTARIA

10 According to Aristotle, there are two parts of philosophy: the theoretical and the practical. Aristotle dedicated his primary effort to the theoretical, for through this, we come to know the nature of beings original: "ᾗ ὄντα" (insofar as they are). The theoretical is divided into three parts: physiology natural philosophy, theology, and mathematics. He devoted himself most to physiology, as it is more in line with our own nature, and because theology and mathematics had already been developed by many others before Aristotle, while physiology had not. Thus, Aristotle wrote many natural treatises 15 and, so to speak, divided the multitude of his own writings to correspond to all physical subjects. To demonstrate this, it is reasonable to make a selection of the things that accompany physical objects; for in this way, we will learn that Aristotle’s treatises were divided in accordance with natural things.

Some things accompany all objects generally, while others accompany certain things specifically. Of those that accompany certain things specifically, 20 some belong to eternal things, while others belong to things that come into being and pass away. Of those that belong to things in generation and corruption, some belong specifically to things above the earth, while others to things on the earth. Of those belonging to things on the earth, some belong specifically to inanimate things, while others to animate things. Of those belonging to animate things, some belong specifically to those with senses, while others to those without senses. Therefore, he has written about those things that belong generally to all natural objects—which is the present treatise—and about those 25 that belong specifically to eternal things in On the Heavens, and about those that accompany all things in generation and corruption in On Generation and Corruption, while in the Meteorology he wrote about those belonging specifically to these—