At the moment, it is not yet necessary to explain more exactly what Aristotle means by ἐνέργεια and to what extent the οὐσία can be determined by the ἐνέργεια. Now it is only important what we note how Aristotle circumscribes philosophy in its nature. In the first book of the Metaphysics he makes the following statement: Philosophy is ἐπιστήμη τῶν πρώτοων ἀρχῶν καὶ αἰτῶν θεωρητική. Episthmh is commonly translated as "science." This is misleading because we are only too apt to let the modern conception of "science" infiltrate. The translation of ἐπιστήμη by "science" is also wrong if we understand "science" in the philosophical sense of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. The word ἐπιστήμη is derived from the participle ἐπιστάμενος. That is what a man is called when he is competent and apt in something (competent in the sense of aptitude). Philosophy is the ἐπιστήμη τις, a kind of competence, θεωρητική, which is capable of θεωρείν, that is, of being on the lookout for something and of seizing and holding in its glance what it is on the lookout for. Philosophy therefore is ἐπιστήμη θεωρητική. But what is it that it seizes in its glance?

¶ 5:51 PM