The Physis Ousia

Abstract

The Second Chapter of Book G gives various illustrations to exemplify the way Aristotle wanted the students of the Lyceum to understand how the legein of all-that-is makes manifest that it ‘is related to one certain physis’.

Everything which is healthy is related to health ; one thing in the sense that it preserves health, another in the sense that it produces it, another in the sense that it is a symptom of health, another because it is capable of it. And that which is medical is related to the medical art, one thing being called medical because it possesses it [this art], another because it is naturally adapted to it, another because it is a function of the medical art.