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there exists either one single individual change that is eternal, or a number
of succeeding individual changes.
After presenting the two ways in which change (in the sense of the mass
term) may be eternal, Aristotle quickly adds that the continuous change
would be continuously “much more” or “in a fuller way” (μᾶλλον) than the
composite change, i.e. that option (1) is to be preferred to option (2).9
However, he does not present any further reason for this strange claim, but
merely adds another assertion, which also expresses that option (1) is to be
preferred, since it is better (βέλτιον) than option (2), again without
explaining why this is supposed to be the case.10 The two assertions clearly
both favour the first of the two principle options for eternal change, but no
reasons are presented for either assertion.
A number of questions arise with respect to this passage. One concerns
what seems to be the rather unusual way in which the term ‘continuous’
(συνεχές) is applied here. According, to the definition of continuity in
Phys. VI 1 and V 3 something x is continuous with something y if the limits
at which x and y touch are one and the same, so that, one may infer, x and
y in this sense form one whole.11 But apart from this two-place use of ‘con-
tinuous’ Aristotle also employs a one-place use of the term that is of special
importance for understanding what goes on in Phys. VIII and in the third
argument for locomotion’s priority: for something x to be continuous as a
whole means that x potentially is infinitely divisible.12
As Aristotle shows in Phys. VI, being continuous in this way is one of
the core features of change in general. But if for Aristotle any change is con-
tinuous13, it is puzzling, and seemingly in tension with a fundamental prin-
9 μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἡ συνεχής, Phys. VIII 7, 260b21: “in a fuller way the continuous one”.
10 καὶ βέλτιον συνεχῆ ἢ ἐφεξῆς εἶναι, Phys. VIII 7, 260b21–22: “that is, it is better to be
continuous than to be in succession”. Thus, the καί at the beginning of the phrase should be
taken as exepegetical.
11 συνεχῆ μὲν ὧν τὰ ἔσχατα ἕν, Phys. VI 1, 231a22: “things are continuous whose
extremes are one”. This is also what follows from the explanation stated in Phys. V 3, 227a11–
12: λέγω δ᾽εἶναι συνεχὲς ὅταν ταὐτὸ γένηται καὶ ἓν τὸ ἑκατέρου πέρας οἷς ἅπτονται:
“I say that things are continuous when the limit of each by which they touch has become one
and the same”.
12 See for instance Phys. VI 1, 231b15–16: φανερὸν δὲ καὶ ὅτι πᾶν συνεχὲς διαιρετὸν
εἰς αἰεῖ διαιρετά: “and it is clear that everything that is continuous is divisible into things
that are always divisible.”
13 See for instance Phys. V 4, 228a20. Applying the term ‘continuous’ (συνεχές) to
changes is somewhat curious: it is more or less clear what may be meant by saying that the
limits of a (continuous) body’s parts, for instance, are touching and one and the same. Yet, a
change is essentially different from things like bodies, stretches of a road, etc., which makes it
seem strange at first to say that a change is continuous because the touching limits of its parts
are one and the same. For what exactly, one might wonder, are the limits of change and how
The unity of the eternal change 119
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