Metaphysics book1 c4-10

Aristotle begins a family tree of arts related to reason.

Natural Science
Religion
Mathematics
~~Plato's Forms~~
Philosophy

The end, philosophy, is the best way to assess being while at the same time being the most abstract art of reason.

Natural Science credits material as the source for something to exist. While the material may exist, it was not what caused something to exist. Natural Science is largely pointing to things that can be sensed, seeing they exist, and jumping to the conclusion that what is sensed caused it's existence. (Natural Science also resembles a form of art based on necessity.)

Religion happens when one considers material to be insufficient to cause being. In it, the cause of being is abstract but largely focuses on an attribute that is not sense. For instance, consider a hot fire. A Natural Scientist would say fire is caused by the material that is on fire. Religious reasoning would say the Hotness of the fire is the cause of the fire. But the term religion becomes apparent when using good/bad to denote causality.

Yet, listing an abstract attribute of nature does not cause being any more than a material attribute. But Religious reasoning is a step closer to Philosophy than Natural Science.

The next step up is Mathematics. Math still dabbles in attributes but in abstraction. Understanding this requires a look at numbers. Numbers are somewhat universal attributes that can be applied to anything. A fire can not be considered cold but both a fire and an ice cube can be considered 1 thing. Math may be the most abstract form of reasoning mentioned yet, but it seems logical that a number does not cause existence and is still yet an attribute of something that has already been caused.

Plantonic Forms get dangerously close to philosophy. The idea, more or less, is that we address reality through ideals. So, thus far, the first form of reason that addresses thought as a cause. Platonic Forms also mirror Psychology a great deal. But the study of thought is not Philosophy. Philosophy is the study of first causes.

There are problems just considering Platonic Forms as the first cause of existence. Having the ability to link ideal things with things from sense perception will not cause itself. There has to be a source of motion.

This whole discussion seems to be in order to get all of this out of the system. So far, the discussion has been describing what Philosophy is not.