Aristotle begins by describing the meaning of the words nature and natural. He identifies the meaning of each, and also explains some common phrases which include each of the words. He says all natural things have a principle of motion and of stationariness. He also says thatnatural things are composed of stone, earth, or a mixture of the two. According to him,artificial products do not possess the source of their own production.For example, the nature of a bed is of wood. He says that if the bed was planted andbegan to rot, a shoot may grow from that. Aristotle says that a bed would not be growing, butwood (in the form of a tree), which is the nature of the bed. Another idea of nature is form. Bones and flesh does not have its own nature, until it is formed in the body.In the second section of this book, Aristotle distinguishes between mathematicians andphysicists. He says that they work with similar ideas and materials, but use different methods. He continues to explain how the forms of things can involve motion. Aristotle explains thatnature has two senses: the form, and the matter. He explains that each form has acorresponding special matter. He concludes that the physicist must know the form of essenceof matter up to a certain point.The third section explains causes, their character, and number. The whatever a thingcomes to be from is the cause. The form of the thing is also a cause. The source of a change(coming to be or passing away) is a cause. The sake for which an activity is done is a cause. That is an explanation of different senses of cause, and their characteristics. There are a totalof six uses for the word cause.In the fourth section, Aristotle tells us that chance and spontaneity are included incause. He tells us that physicists shouldnt have agreed with the idea that things occur due tochance, but Empedocles speaks of chance in his description of the air and of the parts ofanimals. Aristotle continu...
