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The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
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have in common that each of them is connected with a certain state of den- sity. When there is an alteration and the quality changes, there is always a concomitant change with respect to density, that is, condensation or rare- faction. By referring to these two processes one can explain part of what happens when something undergoes alteration, namely that its basic mate- rial components, or at least some of these, change with respect to density. And this is the sense in which πύκνωσις and μάνωσις may be called a principle or source (ἀρχή) of all qualities. Of course this does not mean that the basic qualities, much less any quality, can be reduced to states of rarity and density or changes in these qualities to condensation or rarefaction, although this passage has been understood this way.106 To evaluate the argument, one needs to have its context in mind. Aristotle is referring to condensation and rarefaction as essential parts of alteration in order to show that alteration, too, necessarily involves change in place and that loco- motion therefore is prior to alteration. Therefore, there clearly is a certain sense in which one could correctly argue that alteration has its source in condensation or rarefaction, namely by focusing on special processes that occur on what one could call the mate- rial level. Yet, this alone of course does not show that locomotion is the pri- mary kind of change. In order to reach this goal another step is taken by Aristotle in his argument. This next step is to identify condensation and rarefaction with aggregation and segregation, the latter of which, as I have already argued, necessarily involve a change in place. Therefore, I will now examine whether Aristotle’s claim that “condensation and rarefaction are aggregation and segregation”107 is correct. 4.4.5 Condensation and rarefaction are forms of aggregation and segregation To my knowledge, there is no other place in which Aristotle explicitly says anything about the relation between condensation/rarefaction and aggrega- tion/segregation. Therefore, I will attempt to characterize the relation between them by examining his use of the terms (rather than by examining what he explicitly says about them). The way in which the terms are applied clearly suggests that the claim about the relation of the two pairs of phenomena as it is stated in Phys. VIII 7 is indeed what Aristotle has in mind, and not, as one might think, merely a reference to the theory of an earlier philosopher. For there are some pas- sages in Aristotle in which processes in nature that are described in terms 106 Therefore, I do not agree with Graham (1999), 122, who thinks that in this argument “Aristotle seems to reduce apparently simple qualities to condensation and rarefaction”. 107 πύκνωσις δὲ καὶ μάνωσις σύγκρισις καὶ διάκρισις, Phys. VIII 7, 260b11. 110 Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
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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

  1. Acknowledgements 9
  2. 1. Introduction 10
  3. 2. The importance of the primary kind of change 14
    1. 2.1 Overview 14
    2. 2.2 The arrangement of the Physics 15
      1. 2.2.1 First option: Books VI–VIII as the treatise On Change 18
        1. 2.2.1.1 Andronicus 19
        2. 2.2.1.2 Theophrastus’ letter 19
        3. 2.2.1.3 References in Aristotle 21
        4. 2.2.1.4 Eudemus 21
      2. 2.2.2 Second option: Books V–VIII as the treatise On Change 22
    3. 2.3 The eight books of the Physics 25
      1. 2.3.1 Physics I–IV: Examining change for the sake of understanding nature 25
      2. 2.3.2 Physics V–VIII: The general analysis of change 27
    4. 2.4 Physics VIII 31
      1. 2.4.1 Overview 31
      2. 2.4.2 The argument of Physics VIII 31
      3. 2.4.3 The importance of the primary kind of change 34
    5. 2.5 Conclusion 40
  4. 3. Change in quality and quantity of living beings depends on loco-motion, but not vice versa 42
    1. 3.1 Overview 42
    2. 3.2 Growth and diminution presuppose alteration 44
      1. 3.2.1 Growth presupposes alteration 45
      2. 3.2.2 Diminution presupposes alteration 48
    3. 3.3 Alteration presupposes locomotion 49
    4. 3.4 Does locomotion precede all occurrences of change in quantity? 53
    5. 3.5 The reason for the restriction of the argument’s scope 58
    6. 3.6 The sense of priority 67
    7. 3.7 Conclusion 69
  5. 4. Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change, but not vice versa 71
    1. 4.1 Overview 71
    2. 4.2 What changes in quantity changes with respect to place 73
      1. 4.2.1 Overview 73
      2. 4.2.2 What is growing moves to a larger place 74
      3. 4.2.3 Change in place implies no change in the spatial order of the subject’s parts 78
      4. 4.2.4 A possible objection 81
      5. 4.2.5 Compatibility with the irreducibility of the kinds of change 85
      6. 4.2.6 Conclusion 88
    3. 4.3 What undergoes generation or corruption changes with respect to place 89
      1. 4.3.1 Overview 89
      2. 4.3.2 Generation and corruption in virtue of aggregation and segregation 90
      3. 4.3.3 What aggregates or segregates must change with respect to place 96
      4. 4.3.4 Conclusion 97
    4. 4.4 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 98
      1. 4.4.1 Overview 98
      2. 4.4.2 What does it mean that condensation and rarefaction are principles of quality? 100
      3. 4.4.3 Every alteration involves a change in the four basic qualities 104
      4. 4.4.4 Every change in the four basic qualities involves con- densation or rarefaction 108
      5. 4.4.5 Condensation and rarefaction are forms of aggregation and segregation 110
      6. 4.4.6 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 112
      7. 4.4.7 Conclusion 113
    5. 4.5 Conclusion 113
  6. 5. All changes depend on the first locomotion, but not vice versa 115
    1. 5.1 Overview 115
    2. 5.2 The unity of the eternal change 118
      1. 5.2.1 Two ways in which change may be eternal 118
      2. 5.2.2 Why the eternal change must be one and continuous 121
      3. 5.2.3 The criteria for being one continuous change 123
      4. 5.2.4 What is better is the case in nature 127
    3. 5.3 Locomotion alone can be one and eternal 130
      1. 5.3.1 None of the other three kinds of change can be one and eternal 131
      2. 5.3.2 Only circular locomotion can be one and eternal 134
    4. 5.4 Locomotion has ontological priority 137
      1. 5.4.1 Ontological priority 137
      2. 5.4.2 A third sense in which locomotion is ontologically prior 139
    5. 5.5 Conclusion 142
  7. 6. Locomotion has temporal priority 144
    1. 6.1 Overview 144
    2. 6.2 Locomotion has priority in time, since it is the only change eternals can undergo 146
    3. 6.3 Objection: Locomotion is the last of all changes in perishable things 148
    4. 6.4 Coming to be presupposes an earlier locomotion 150
    5. 6.5 The locomotion of the sun as a cause of generation 154
    6. 6.6 Conclusion 162
  8. 7. Locomotion is prior in essence 164
    1. 7.1 Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be 164
      1. 7.1.1 Overview 164
      2. 7.1.2 The reversed priority claim 166
      3. 7.1.3 A different use of the term ‘locomotion’ 172
      4. 7.1.4 Does locomotion come to things last? 175
        1. 7.1.4.1 Capacities of the soul 176
        2. 7.1.4.2 Priority in essence of the locomotive capacity 179
      5. 7.1.5 Another sense of priority in essence 182
      6. 7.1.6 Conclusion 184
    2. 7.2 Locomotion alone preserves its subject’s essence 186
      1. 7.2.1 Overview 186
      2. 7.2.2 Locomotion does not change its subject’s being 188
      3. 7.2.3 Locomotion preserves its subject’s essence best 190
      4. 7.2.4 Making x depart from its essence by being part of a change in essence? 195
        1. 7.2.4.1 Alteration as part of a change in essence 195
        2. 7.2.4.2 Growth and diminution as part of change in essence 199
        3. 7.2.4.3 Locomotion as a part of a change in essence? 201
      5. 7.2.5 Change in quality or quantity in principle may result in a change in essence 202
    3. 7.3 Conclusion: Locomotion’s priority in essence 207
  9. 8. Conclusion 211
  10. Bibliography 220
  11. List of Abbreviations 223
  12. Index Locorum 221
  13. Index Nominum 223
  14. Index Rerum 221
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The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics