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Aristotle Bilingual
Anthology : KNOWLEDGE OF PRINCIPLES AND CAUSESfrom Aristotle's Metaphysics, * 980a-982a, translated by W. D. Ross, Greek Fonts
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| And understanding and knowledge pursued for their own sake are found most in the knowledge of that which is most knowable (for he who chooses to know for the sake of knowing will choose most readily that which is most truly knowledge, and such is the knowledge of that which is most knowable); and the first principles and the causes are most knowable; for by reason of these, and from these, all other things come to be known, and not these by means of the things subordinate to them. And the science which knows to what end each thing must be done is the most authoritative of the sciences, and more authoritative than any ancillary science; and this end is the good of that thing, and in general the supreme good in the whole of nature. Judged by all the tests we have mentioned, then, the name in question falls to the same science; this must be a science that investigates the first principles and causes; for the good, i.e. the end, is one of the causes. |
τὸ δ΄ εἰδέναι καὶ τὸ ἐπίστασθαι αὐτῶν ἕνεκα μάλισθ΄ ὑπάρχει τῇ τοῦ μάλιστα ἐπιστητοῦ ἐπιστήμῃ (ὁ γὰρ τὸ ἐπίστασθαι δι΄ αὑτὸ αἱρούμενος τὴν μάλιστα ἐπιστήμην μάλιστα αἱρήσεται͵ τοιαύτη δ΄ ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ μάλιστα ἐπιστητοῦ)͵ μάλιστα δ΄ ἐπιστητὰ τὰ πρῶτα καὶ τὰ αἴτια (διὰ γὰρ ταῦτα καὶ ἐκ τούτων τἆλλα γνωρίζεται ἀλλ΄ οὐ ταῦτα διὰ τῶν ὑποκειμένων)͵ ἀρχικωτάτη δὲ τῶν ἐπιστημῶν͵ καὶ μᾶλλον ἀρχικὴ τῆς ὑπηρετούσης͵ ἡ γνωρίζουσα τίνος ἕνεκέν ἐστι πρακτέον ἕκαστον· τοῦτο δ΄ ἐστὶ τἀγαθὸν ἑκάστου͵ ὅλως δὲ τὸ ἄριστον ἐν τῇ φύσει πάσῃ. ἐξ ἁπάντων οὖν τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπιστήμην πίπτει τὸ ζητούμενον ὄνομα· δεῖ γὰρ ταύτην τῶν πρώτων ἀρχῶν καὶ αἰτιῶν εἶναι θεωρητικήν· καὶ γὰρ τἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα ἓν τῶν αἰτίων ἐστίν. |
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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/aristotle_wisdom.asp?pg=9
