1 Introduction ................................................. 1
1.1 Preliminaries ........................................... 3
1.2 Priority in Definition: Form, Matter, and Compound ...... 6
1.3 Ontological Priority in 'Being What Something
Essentially Is' ........................................ 11
1.4 Aristotelian Method and Methodological Neutrality ...... 16
Part I. Definitional Priority: Form, Matter, and Compound
2 Definitional Priority and Definitionally Primary Items ...... 23
2.1 Priority in Definition or in Account ................... 23
2.2 Separation in Definition and the Asymmetry of
Definitional Priority .................................. 25
2.3 Transitivity ........................................... 25
2.4 Irreflexivity and Fundamentally Primary Items .......... 27
2.5 Form as Definitionally Primary ......................... 30
2.6 Can Definitionally Posterior Items Be Indefinable? ..... 32
2.7 Important Consequences ................................. 37
3 Matter within a Form's Essence? ............................. 39
3.1 Preliminary Remarks .................................... 39
3.2 An Important Distinction ............................... 40
3.3 The Dominant Question of Metaphysics Z.10-11 ........... 42
3.4 Initial Examples of Metaphysics Z.10 and Different
Types of Matter ........................................ 45
3.5 The End of Metaphysics Z.11 and the 'Matter of Form'
(Metaphysics Δ.24) ..................................... 50
4 Natural Form, Mathematical Form, and Platonist Errors ....... 55
4.1 Hyper-Materiality and Hyper-Formality .................. 56
4.2 Abstractability, Separability, and Definitional
Independence (Physics B.2) ............................. 59
4.3 What Natural Forms Are Not Like (I): Forms Studied by
Subordinate Mathematical Sciences (Posterior
Analytics A.13) ........................................ 64
4.4 What Natural Forms Are Not Like (II): Mathematical
Abstractions in Thought (Physics B.2, 193b31-5) ........ 70
4.5 What Natural Forms Are Not Like (III): Platonist
Forms .................................................. 74
4.6 Platonist Forms and Change (Metaphysics A.9 and Z.8) ... 77
4.7 Concluding Note on Mathematical Versus Natural Form
(De Anima A.1) ......................................... 84
5 Natural Forms as Essentially Matter- and Change-Involving ... 90
5.1 Why is Hyper-Formality Mistaken? (Metaphysics Z.11) .... 91
5.2 Matter, Change, and the Case of the Soul (Metaphysics
E.l and De Anima A.1) .................................. 99
5.3 Formal and Material Parts of a Form's Essence: Intra-
Definiens Priority of Form over Matter?
(Physics B.2) ......................................... 110
5.4 The Inextricability of Formal and Material Parts of
a Form's Essence (Sophistici Elenchi 31) .............. 122
5.5 Interim Conclusions ................................... 132
6 Material and Change-Related Features of a Natural Form's
Essence .................................................... 138
6.1 The Necessary and Causal Link between Matter and
Change ................................................ 139
6.2 What Kind of Matter Accounts for Natural Change? ...... 143
6.3 Material and Change-Related Parts in a Natural Form's
Essence ............................................... 152
6.4 The Explanatory Role of Material and Change-Related
Features within a Natural Form's Essence (De Anima
A.4) .................................................. 157
6.5 Conclusion: Metaphysics and the Study of Matter and
Change (Metaphysics Z.11) ............................. 162
7 Essentially Enmattered Form as Prior to Matter: A Modest
Proposal ................................................... 168
7.1 Biting the Bullet ..................................... 169
7.2 Pragmatic or Interest-Relative Views .................. 170
7.3 Two Objects - Two Definitions ......................... 171
7.4 'Matter' as an Ambiguous Term ......................... 173
7.5 Proximate and Remote Types of Matter .................. 173
7.6 Reclaiming the Form's Priority over Matter: The
Basics ................................................ 176
7.7 Definitional Models of Priority ....................... 178
7.8 Determining the Prior and Posterior Relata: The
Causal-Explanatory Model Introduced ................... 180
7.9 Filling in the Gaps: Specifying the Posterior Relata
as Explananda ......................................... 188
7.10 Conclusion: Dissecting the Definiens .................. 195
Part II. Ontological Priority
8 Priority in Nature or in Substance ......................... 203
8.1 The Neutral Formulation of the Independence Claim
[IС] .................................................. 204
8.2 More on the Distinction between Existing and Being
What Something Is ..................................... 208
8.3 Interim Conclusions ................................... 210
9 Platonist Ontological Priority ............................. 212
9.1 The Discussion of Platonist Priority in the Eudemian
Ethics ................................................ 213
9.2 Platonist and Aristotelian Ontological Priority ....... 216
9.3 Appendix: Separation and Priority ..................... 217
10 Evidence for Priority in Being [PIB] in Metaphysics Δ.11 ... 219
10.1 Prior Subjects and Prior Substances ................... 219
10.2 Ways of Being and Ways of Being Ontologically Prior ... 222
10.3 Priority in Potential Being or Destruction and Actual
Being or Generation ................................... 223
10.4 Interim Conclusions ................................... 228
11 The Ontological Priority of Particular Substances .......... 229
11.1 Primary Substances of the Categories and Metaphysics
Z.l ................................................... 230
11.2 How not to Understand the Priority of Particular
Substances ............................................ 233
11.3 Subjecthood, and the Ontological Priority of
Particular Substances as [PIB] ........................ 238
11.4 Conclusion ............................................ 244
11.5 Appendix: Metaphysics Z.l and Priority 'in Time' ...... 249
12 Definitional and Ontological Priority [РIB] ................ 254
12.1 Aristotle's Distinction between 'Priority in Account'
and 'Priority in Substance' (Metaphysics M.2) ......... 255
12.2 Metaphysics M.2 and the Claim of Form to both
Priority Conditions ................................... 260
12.3 What Is it for a Form to Be 'Prior in Account'?
(Metaphysics H.1 & Physics B.1) ....................... 262
12.4 Ontological Priority [РIB] as Grounding 'Real'
Definitional Priority ................................. 265
13 Test Cases for Ontological Priority [РIB] .................. 270
13.1 Right/Acute Angles (Metaphysics Z.10) ................. 270
13.2 Actual Being as Ontologically Prior to Potential Being
(Metaphysics θ.8) ..................................... 278
13.3 Substance and Form as Actual Being - Matter as
Potential Being ....................................... 278
13.4 Generalizability of [РIB] (I): Capacity Possession
and Exercise .......................................... 286
13.5 Generalizability of [PIB] (II): Capacities and Their
Exercise .............................................. 288
13.6 Generalizability of [РIВ] (III): Perishable Things
and Eternal Actual Beings ............................. 291
13.7 Conclusion: The Unity of Metaphysics θ.8 .............. 299
14 Conclusion: Further Problems and Some Suggestions .......... 301
14.1 Substancehood, and the Status of Priority ............. 302
14.2 Essential Interdependence and 'Parts' of the Form's
Essence ............................................... 305
14.3 The Scope of Ontological Priority and 'Particular
versus Universal Form' ................................ 308
14.4 Ontological Priority and Modality ..................... 309
Appendix 1: Metaphysics Z.11, 1036b28:  ... 312
Appendix 2: Textual and Interpretative Issues in Metaphysics
Δ.11, 1019al-14 ................................... 317
Bibliography .................................................. 320
Index Locorum ................................................. 325
General Index ................................................. 327
Index Nominum ................................................. 329
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