Amazon.com description: Product Description: This extraordinary text totally paved the way for the rest of Western metaphysics. Metaphysics is a lucid text, though still difficult because of the complexity of the ideas. In it, Aristotle posits his famous causes of being, material, formal, efficient, final. And he conceptualizes the criteria for essence. There is almost no way to master the contents of this body of work, it has challenged the greatest thinkers ever since its rediscovery and will continue to astound and mystify for as long as it continues to exist.