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way. As I have pointed out, change in magnitude, however, includes both
growth and diminution.19 For this it remains to be shown that not only
growth, but also diminution requires an alteration in order to occur. Other-
wise, Aristotle could not claim that change in magnitude—about which he
is obviously speaking here—presupposes alteration and hence locomo-
tion.20
3.2.2 Diminution presupposes alteration
Aristotle does not spell out explicitly how diminution occurs. According to
GC I 5 something grows by means of some thing’s acceding to the growing
thing, while something diminishes by some thing’s leaving the body.21 Even
though Aristotle does not say this explicitly, he seems to think that growth
and diminution work according to the same principles, since diminution
may be considered as a reversed form of growth, so to speak. If this is cor-
rect, that which is leaving the body, a portion of flesh or tissue for example,
needs to become separated from the portion of flesh of which it is a part.
This detachment, or, to put it in Aristotelian terms, the process of turning
something that is like that of which it is a part into something that—at least
to a certain degree—is unlike this stuff, presupposes an alteration. Further-
more, this alteration needs to occur before the actual occurrence of the
diminution, since the part cannot be dissolved out of the continuous whole,
thereby making this whole become smaller, until it is altered in the neces-
sary way. An example of this would be a part of flesh that is detached from
the living tissue and that by this process ceases to be like the actual flesh of
the body and turns into some other material that is transported out of the
body after the change.22 The following example could serve as an analogy:
suppose, for instance, I take a candle or a piece of wax and start heating a
part of it by means of another other candle that is burning. A part of the
wax will become warmer and warmer through my heating and at some
point a certain portion of the wax will turn into liquid and finally will be
19 See Phys. V 2, 226a29–32, and GC I 5, 320a8–10.
20 Philoponus, Simplicius, Aquinas, Ross (1936), Wagner (1967), Zekl (1988), and Gra-
ham (1999) do not say anything about this. Either they—without making it explicit—do not
think that this a problem and presuppose that it is clear that diminution takes place according
to the same principles as growth, or they are unaware of this problem.
21 See GC I 5, 321a3–5 and 321b12f.
22 The ‘flesh’ by being detached from the organism’s tissue stops being flesh in the strict
sense, as this presupposes being part of a living body’s flesh; in the same sense Aristotle would
say that a chopped off hand is no longer a hand, since being a hand presupposes being part of
a living human body.
48 Change in quality and quantity of living beings
ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060
© 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
- Titel
- The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
- Autor
- Sebastian Odzuck
- Herausgeber
- Dorothea Frede
- Gisela Striker
- Verlag
- Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9783647253060
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 23.2 cm
- Seiten
- 238
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- Naturwissenschaften Physik
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Acknowledgements 9
- 1. Introduction 10
- 2. The importance of the primary kind of change 14
- 3. Change in quality and quantity of living beings depends on loco-motion, but not vice versa 42
- 4. Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change, but not vice versa 71
- 4.1 Overview 71
- 4.2 What changes in quantity changes with respect to place 73
- 4.3 What undergoes generation or corruption changes with respect to place 89
- 4.4 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 98
- 4.4.1 Overview 98
- 4.4.2 What does it mean that condensation and rarefaction are principles of quality? 100
- 4.4.3 Every alteration involves a change in the four basic qualities 104
- 4.4.4 Every change in the four basic qualities involves con- densation or rarefaction 108
- 4.4.5 Condensation and rarefaction are forms of aggregation and segregation 110
- 4.4.6 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 112
- 4.4.7 Conclusion 113
- 4.5 Conclusion 113
- 5. All changes depend on the first locomotion, but not vice versa 115
- 6. Locomotion has temporal priority 144
- 6.1 Overview 144
- 6.2 Locomotion has priority in time, since it is the only change eternals can undergo 146
- 6.3 Objection: Locomotion is the last of all changes in perishable things 148
- 6.4 Coming to be presupposes an earlier locomotion 150
- 6.5 The locomotion of the sun as a cause of generation 154
- 6.6 Conclusion 162
- 7. Locomotion is prior in essence 164
- 7.1 Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be 164
- 7.2 Locomotion alone preserves its subject’s essence 186
- 7.2.1 Overview 186
- 7.2.2 Locomotion does not change its subject’s being 188
- 7.2.3 Locomotion preserves its subject’s essence best 190
- 7.2.4 Making x depart from its essence by being part of a change in essence? 195
- 7.2.5 Change in quality or quantity in principle may result in a change in essence 202
- 7.3 Conclusion: Locomotion’s priority in essence 207
- 8. Conclusion 211
- Bibliography 220
- List of Abbreviations 223
- Index Locorum 221
- Index Nominum 223
- Index Rerum 221