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This claim about the temporal posteriority of locomotion will also play an
important role later on in the fifth argument for the claim that of the four
kinds of change, locomotion is primary in essence. Aristotle will say a little
more about this claim there, and since understanding the details of this
assumption is of much more importance for making sense of the fifth argu-
ment, I will present a thorough discussion of it in this context later on.15 To
understand the current passage it is sufficient to know that what Aristotle is
claiming here is this: in the process of a living thing’s coming to be, locomo-
tion is the last of the four kinds of change to come to these things, in the
sense that any such being is actually able to perform its specific locomotion
as a whole only after it, in the course of its development, has already under-
gone alteration, and growth as a whole, insofar as these changes have their
source at least partially in the living thing’s soul and are not completely
caused by some external source.16 Accordingly, the term ‘locomotion’
(φορά) is used in a special sense here and does not stand for just any kind
of change in place something x may be subject to in general, but only for
such cases of locomotion for which the respective thing as a self-mover may
be responsible itself.17 If the claim is correct—and as I shall show in the
next chapter Aristotle himself presents very good reasons why this is the
case—then locomotion indeed seems to be the last of all changes in the
sense in question.
But how then, one might wonder, does that fit with Aristotle’s claim that
locomotion is prior in time to all other kinds of change, if it clearly is last in
this way? For this fact rather speaks for the assumption that coming to be,
or generation (γένεσις), rather than locomotion, is the primary kind of
change. As Aristotle points out later on, against this background one indeed
νων κίνησίς ἐστιν. Phys. VIII 7, 261a32–33: “For after coming to be, first alteration and
growth [come to the thing], while locomotion is a change of things that already have achieved
completion.”
15 See section 7.1.
16 I do not mean to say that for instance an animal’s soul is responsible for all these
changes in the very same respect, nor that it is fully responsible for its own generation, yet its
soul certainly plays a role for the occurrence of these changes. The point is that Aristotle here
clearly excludes such changes that the respective being does not undergo as a whole and in
virtue of being a living organism. For more on this see section 7.1.3.
17 Thus, φορά is used here in a sense similar to that used in GC I 5, i.e., for change in
place that the subject undergoes as a whole (see 4.2.2, esp. p.76f.). Therefore, the claim about
the posteriority of locomotion does not contradict what was shown in the first argument, for
there Aristotle did not argue that alteration and growth have to be preceded by a change in
place the respective thing undergoes as a whole, but by some change in place that occurs in
the respective thing. It is clear that the scope of this posteriority claim cannot encompasses all
things that have a coming to be, but only those which in potential have the capacity to move
themselves as a whole, i.e. self-moving animals. For more on the special use of the term φορά
see the next chapter, especially section 7.1.3.
Objection: Locomotion is the last of all changes 149
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