"Aristotle's Gradations of Being was edited from the papers of the late Joseph Owens. Some fifty years after his book, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics, Owens turned again to consider the central themes in Aristotle's conception of a science of being or "first philosophy." Reflecting on a half-century of scholarship, and drawing on his own publications in Greek and medieval philosophy, Owens sets forth in a step-by-step argument his own interpretation of Aristotle's account of substance, essence, and the gradations of being. Owens writes extensively of the different but complementary approaches of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas." "He discusses the many facets of the Aristotelian notion of "form," including its role in a realistic epistemology." "This monograph, edited by Owens's colleague and former pupil, Lloyd P. Gerson, includes a complete bibliography of Owens's writings as well as works critical of Owens's readings of ancient and medieval philosophers. It will serve as an introduction to one of the most influential interpretations of the Aristotelian metaphysical tradition of the past century."--BOOK JACKET.