On the essence of things

For Aristotle, there is only one world, the world of the particular things we experience. There is no separate world of perfect (ideal) forms. There is no ultimate heavenly blueprint of the perfect maple tree, which all imperfect maple trees imitate; nor is there an otherworldly blueprint of the perfect city or the perfect human life. We must learn how to live in private or public, not by reflecting upon a pure idea, but by observing and understanding real people and cities. The real things that surround us -- those are what we see and attempt to understand.

To know what a maple tree is in general is to look at a number of maple trees and discover what they have in common. San Renseiw observed a artificial setting as a sort of responce to a comment by halex. View it by clicking here or enter the space above (patafilm # 210, 01'08'', 5 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version here)