Metaphysics

​Of things that come to be, some come to be by nature, some by art, and some spontaneously. And everything that comes to be comes to be by something, from something, and is something. By “something” I mean in accordance with each category; for it is either a “this”, or a quantity, or a quality, or a place. And natural comings-to-be are those of which the coming-to-be is from nature; and that from which it comes to be is what we call matter; and that by which it is produced is one of the things that exist by nature; and the “something” is a man or a plant or something else of this sort, which indeed we most of all say are substances. —and all things that come to be, whether by nature or by art, have matter; for each of them is capable both of being and of not being, and this is the matter in each— and in general, both that from which they come is nature, and that in accordance with which they come is nature (for the thing coming to be has a nature, such as a plant or an animal), and that by which they are produced is the nature said in accordance with the form, which is of the same kind (and this is in another); for man begets man.— In this way, then, do things that come to be do so through nature, and the other comings-to-be are called productions. And all productions are either from art or from a capacity or from thought. And some of these come to be also spontaneously and by chance, in a similar way as among things that come to be from nature; for there too some of the same things come to be both from seed and without seed. About these, then, we must investigate later. And from art come to be those things of which the form is in the soul (and by form I mean the essence of each thing and its primary substance); for in a way the same form is of opposites too; for the substance of the privation is the opposite substance, as health is of disease; for disease is the absence of health, and health is the formula in the soul and the knowledge. And the healthy state comes to be when one has thought in this way: “Since this is health, if the subject is to be healthy, this must belong to it, e.g., uniformity, and if this, then heat”; and in this way he always thinks, until he brings it to this last thing which he himself is able to produce. Then the movement from this point onward is called production, which is towards being healthy. So it happens in a way that health comes to be from health and house from house, the one having matter from the one without matter; for the medical art and the building art are the form of health and of the house, and by substance without matter I mean the essence.