TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Editor's Introduction
Synopsis: Introduction to Naturalism, Approaching Aristotle's Metaphysical Naturalism, Aristotle
and the Text of the Metaphysics: Reception History, Metaphysics for Aristotle; an Episteme,
Classic American Metaphysics, Aristotelian-Peripatetic Metaphysics, Ordinal Naturalism, Buchler and Tejera
Part I
Metaphysics From the Perspective of Classic American Philosophy
Chapter 1: Metaphysics as Coordinative Analysis or Speculative Rhetoric
Synopsis: Metaphysics is a philosophic function, not an area. It is speculative rhetoric, or
methodeutic. It does not unify the sciences. Metaphysics is a coordinative study and has an
exhibitive dimension. Categories may not be prescribed beforehand. The category natural
complex is all-encompassing. Metaphysics must not be reductive. It is a critique of high-order
abstractions. The knowledges include more than hard science. The knowledges, or arts and
sciences, imply much about the world that sustains them. Progress in metaphysics. Critique of the
concept of experience. It was inadequate because dualistic and narrowly cognitivist. Buchlers
category of proception. Buchlers synechism reformulates continuity as relatedness
Section i. Some Needed Categorial & Coordinative Distinctions: Assertive, Active, and
Exhibitive Judgment
Section ii. Metaphysical Naturalism as Analytic and Coordinative
Synopsis: Sons of Apollo and Reflective Thought. Metaphysics as Analytic according to Randall.
Naturalistic Reformulations of Substance and the Primacy of the Subject-Matter. How the
Naturalists Construe Nature. Buchler's Ontology of Natural Complexes
Part II
The Aristotelian-Peripatetic Metaphysics: a Naturalist Reading and Critique
Chapter 2: Books Alpha and Alpha the Less
Section i. The Conflicted Exposition of Subject-Matter and Method in Metaphysics A
Section ii. On the Knowledges
Section iii. The So-Called Causes and the So-Called Pre-Socratics
Section iv. On the Terms and Conceptions of the Text
Section v. Book Alpha the Less
Section vi. On the Transmission of the Aristotelian-Peripatetic Texts

Chapter 3: Book Beta: Some Problems in the Search for Knowledge

Chapter 4: Book Gamma: First Philosophy as the Study of Primary Being and the Most
Basic Categories
Chapter 5: Book Delta: Terms and Concepts
Chapter 6: Books Epsylon and Zeta: On Primal Existence
Chapter 7: Book Eta: On the Unity of Matter and Form: Potentiality
Section i.
Matter and Change
Section ii-iii. Individuality, Differentiating Traits, and Definition
Section iv-vi. Emergence of Specific Existences and Events
Chapter 8: Book Theta: Potentiality is Power, Energeia is Function
Active and Passive Power. Energeia is Function. Rational and
Non-Rational Powers. Power and Change. Potency, Impossibility,
Complementary Powers. More About Operations and Powers. Powers and
Activities, Truth and Being
Chapter 9: Book Iota: Unity and Derivative Concepts
Unity as Measure; Unity and Being as Determinate; Unity, Plurality, and their Derivatives;
Contraries and the Conjoint Denial of Extremes; Oppositions of One to Many, and
Intermediates; Species Differences; The Perishable and the Imperishable
Chapter 10: Book Kappa: Knowledge, Principles and First Philosophy
The Unity of First Philosophy, and the Nature of Premisses
Chapter 11: Book Lambda: Does Aristotle's Naturalism Leave Room for the Supernatural?
Matter, Change, Primary Beings and their Kinds; Determinate Change and the Forms;
Analogies of Change, Perishable Being, Actual Motion. The Eternal
Chapter 12: Books Mu and Nu: Mathematical Being, the Ideas, and First Archai
Numbers, Ideas, and Premisses. Prime Mover, and the Final Good
Part III
The Metaphysics of Ordinal Naturalism
Chapter 13: Buchler's Modes of Judgment and Aristotle's Kinds of Knowing
Chapter 14: Buchler's Metaphysics of Natural Complexes
Section i.
Section ii.

Rudimentary Considerations
Prevalence and Alescence

Chapter 15: Ordinality and Relation

Section iii.
Section iv.

Ordinality and Relation

Possibility and Actuality

Chapter 16: The World as Infinite Complexes, and Nature as Ordinality

Section v.

On the Concept of the World and the Idea of Nature

Part IV
Applying Buchler's Metaphysics

Chapter 17: Peirce, Parmenides, and Buchler on Continuity and Relatedness

Chapter 18: Buchler, Peirce and Interpretation Theory
Chapter 19: Buchler's Philosophy and Plato's Method
Chapter 20: Did Plato Give a Lecture or a Recital?

Appendix I: "The Functionalism and Dynamism of Aristotle ." by John Herman Randall Jr.
Appendix II: "Introduction to the Philosophy of Justus Buchler." by Beth J. Singer

References and Bibliography, Abbreviations, Glossary, Index