Quotation
Last reviewed:
“All human beings by nature desire to know.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism · Ancient · c. 330 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that curiosity is not a hobby of scholars but a feature of human nature, shown first in the pleasure we take in sensing and especially in seeing. A competing reading treats the line as the start of a defence of theoretical science, so 'know' points toward wisdom about first causes, not toward every itch for gossip. It opens Metaphysics I.1. The next pages climb from sensation to memory, experience, art, and finally to knowledge for its own sake.
Did Aristotle really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A light modernisation of W. D. Ross's translation of the opening of the Metaphysics, which has 'all men by nature desire to know'. The sentence is Aristotle's.
Where it comes from
Metaphysics I.1, 980a
Approximate date: c. 330 BCE.
How to use it
The urge to check a noise in the street, or to know why the bus is late, is the small end of the desire he names. It can be nosiness, and it can be the start of understanding a timetable, a body, or a policy. He thinks the desire is natural even when the topic will never pay, and a purely useful education cuts off the top of the ladder he is describing.
A mindset reading
The habit is to notice the pleasure in finding out, and to ask how far the pleasure is being used. Desire to know can be a virtue of attention or a way of avoiding action. Aristotle's claim is about the tendency, not a guarantee that every question is worth your evening.
Understand the philosophy
Aristotle is answering why there is a study that is not for use. By nature, physei, means the tendency belongs to what we are, not to a special training. To know, eidenai, starts in the love of the senses and ends, in this chapter, with wisdom about causes. The sentence is the door into first philosophy, not a slogan about lifelong learning in the modern sense.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that curiosity is not a hobby of scholars but a feature of human nature, shown first in the pleasure we take in sensing and especially in seeing. A competing reading treats the line as the start of a defence of theoretical science, so 'know' points toward wisdom about first causes, not toward every itch for gossip. It opens Metaphysics I.1. The next pages climb from sensation to memory, experience, art, and finally to knowledge for its own sake.
Did Aristotle really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A light modernisation of W. D. Ross's translation of the opening of the Metaphysics, which has 'all men by nature desire to know'. The sentence is Aristotle's.
Which work is it in?
Metaphysics I.1, 980a Approximate date: c. 330 BCE.