Abstract

Aristotle proposed in the famous part of his 6th Book of Metaphysics a triple categorization of speculative sciences (physics, mathematics, first philosophy). Some scholars have considered this classical division as an unlawful and inconsistent Platonic residue of the parallelism between knowledge and reality. Others have numbered Aristotle among the upholders of the scholastic doctrine of the so-called degrees of abstraction. After having profoundly examined texts of the Corpus Aristotelicum (Metaphysics E 1, 1025b 1 - 1026a 32; On the soul A 1, 403a 27 - 403b 19) not only we can refute the accusation of Platonism and the unlawful and anachronistic attribution of degrees of abstraction doctrine to the Stagirite, but principally understand the real importance of Aristotle's proposition. That is to say: its role in determining the epistemic character of the science on which all this deep inquiry takes place: the "filosofia prima".