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growth, nor alteration, nor generation or corruption.”76 For if locomotion
indeed is the change that is primarily caused by the first unmoved mover
and on which all other changes in the cosmos depend—and as we have seen
it is the only possible candidate—then it cannot presuppose any of the other
types of change.77 And this is in perfect accordance with what was shown in
the previous two arguments, especially in the second, which made clear that
change in place is the only change that per se does not entail the occurrence
of any other change. This is different for all other kinds of change since they
would not exist “without there being the continuous [change], which the
first mover is causing.”78
This however makes clear that the argument not only shows that loco-
motion has ontological priority, but also presents one more way in which
locomotion is ontologically primary than the two previous arguments did.79
In the first argument it was shown that locomotion must be ontologically
prior, since any change in quality and quantity that has its source either
directly or indirectly in a living being entails the occurrence of a preceding
locomotion. It was also shown that the converse does not hold. The second
argument proved that no change in quality, quantity and substance can
occur without locomotion, in the sense that with respect to what happens
on the material level when things change, every occurrence of the other
76 οὐδεμία γὰρ ἀνάγκη οὔτε αὔξεσθαι οὔτε ἀλλοιοῦσθαι τὸ φερόμενον, οὐδὲ δὴ
γίγνεσθαι ἢ φθείρεσθαι·, Phys. VIII 7, 260b26–28.
77 Philoponus, In Phys. 8, 899, 18, exemplifies this thought by pointing out that the loco-
motion of the heavens does not involve any of the other changes, which is correct since
according to Aristotle eternal things may not change in any other respect than place.
78 τούτων δὲ οὐδεμίαν ἐνδέχεται τῆς συνεχοῦς μὴ οὔσης, ἣν κινεῖ τὸ πρῶτον
κινοῦν. Phys. VIII 7, 260a28–29. Wagner (1967), 689, thinks that this is the conclusion to
which the argument really leads and not what is presented as the conclusion by Aristotle in
260b25–26. I think this is wrong, since I have shown how what is said in b25–26 follows from
the argument and because I hold that Aristotle in 260b28–29 spells out in more detail what
was shown before and thereby makes clear that locomotion is ontologically prior: since the
continuous and eternal change that is caused directly by the first unmoved mover is locomo-
tion, all other changes in virtue of their depending on the change which the first unmoved
mover causes also depend on locomotion. Accordingly, Graham (1999), 126, is also wrong
when he says that the latter part of the argument starting at 260b26 does not seem to be “rele-
vant for the former”; as I said, Aristotle here spells out the implications of what it means to
say that locomotion is the primary change in the sense stated in the argument, and at the
same time makes use of what was shown in the two first arguments: the change that is caused
directly by the first unmoved mover as such cannot presuppose any other change; it does not
do so because locomotion per se does not entail the occurrence of any of the other kinds of
change.
79 Therefore, it is unclear to me why Graham (1999), 124, claims that this argument “does
not seem to exploit the present sense [of priority ] to full advantage.”
Locomotion has ontological priority 141
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