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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
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