"All men by nature desire knowledge"
About this Quote
The line opens Aristotle's Metaphysics and states a bold thesis about human nature: we are born with a drive to know. He immediately grounds the claim in experience, noting the pleasure of the senses, especially sight, because seeing reveals differences and patterns. From that delight grows a structured ascent: sensation yields memory, memory becomes experience, experience matures into craft (techne), and craft reaches for scientific understanding (episteme). The impulse is not only to register that something is so, but to grasp why it is so, to uncover causes and first principles. That movement toward the reasons behind things is what Aristotle calls wisdom.
Saying that the desire is "by nature" is a teleological claim. For Aristotle, natural capacities aim at their proper ends; the eye aims at seeing, and the intellect aims at truth. The universal reach of the phrase does not deny that curiosity can be dulled by hardship, habit, or miseducation. It says that, given normal conditions, human beings are constituted to take pleasure in understanding. The original Greek term often translated as "men" is better read as "human beings" (anthropos), underlining the breadth of the claim.
Philosophy, for him, begins in wonder (thaumazein). We first marvel at the unfamiliar, then at the familiar, and wonder pushes the mind beyond utility. Craftspeople know that something works; the truly wise know why it works. Thus knowledge for its own sake ranks higher than knowledge for profit or survival. That hierarchy grounds his ethics as well: the best, most self-sufficient activity is contemplation (theoria), through which humans realize their highest capacities and approximate eudaimonia, a flourishing life.
The line also explains enduring social practices: education systems, research, and the itch to ask questions all presuppose an inner pull toward truth. Honoring that pull means cultivating habits that turn raw curiosity into disciplined inquiry, so that the natural desire achieves its proper end in understanding rather than in mere opinion.
Saying that the desire is "by nature" is a teleological claim. For Aristotle, natural capacities aim at their proper ends; the eye aims at seeing, and the intellect aims at truth. The universal reach of the phrase does not deny that curiosity can be dulled by hardship, habit, or miseducation. It says that, given normal conditions, human beings are constituted to take pleasure in understanding. The original Greek term often translated as "men" is better read as "human beings" (anthropos), underlining the breadth of the claim.
Philosophy, for him, begins in wonder (thaumazein). We first marvel at the unfamiliar, then at the familiar, and wonder pushes the mind beyond utility. Craftspeople know that something works; the truly wise know why it works. Thus knowledge for its own sake ranks higher than knowledge for profit or survival. That hierarchy grounds his ethics as well: the best, most self-sufficient activity is contemplation (theoria), through which humans realize their highest capacities and approximate eudaimonia, a flourishing life.
The line also explains enduring social practices: education systems, research, and the itch to ask questions all presuppose an inner pull toward truth. Honoring that pull means cultivating habits that turn raw curiosity into disciplined inquiry, so that the natural desire achieves its proper end in understanding rather than in mere opinion.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
|---|---|
| Source | Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I (Alpha), opening line; Bekker 980a1ff. Commonly translated (W.D. Ross) as "All men by nature desire to know." |
More Quotes by Aristotle
Add to List
