Content Warning: The source text uses language, which this guide quotes, that is ableist, sexist, and problematic about mental health concerns.

Aristotle commences with an investigation into the core of philosophy and its quest for wisdom. He differentiates between two forms of cognition: the immediate perception of particular, concrete entities and the extrapolation of broader truths from such observations. Aristotle values the latter more highly, as it entails an in-depth analysis of the rationales and axioms underpinning the world; it thereby lays the groundwork for philosophy’s main aim of discerning the essential nature of being.

Aristotle evaluates the contributions of his forebears, recognizing their impact on metaphysics while also highlighting their inadequacies. He delves into early thinkers like Thales, who postulated that water is the prime substance of all things, and others such as Anaximenes and Heraclitus, who argued for air and fire, respectively. Aristotle criticizes these notions for their reductive methods in elucidating the world’s intricacies.

He assesses Empedocles’s hypothesis of four elemental constituents, earth, air, fire, and water, acknowledging its progress in proposing a diversity of fundamental causes. Nevertheless, he critiques Empedocles for the absence of an integrative principle that harmonizes these elements.