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to be is incomplete (ἀτελές) and proceeding towards its principle (ἐπ᾽
ἀρχὴν ἰόν), that is, the state of full maturity in which it is complete and in
which it begins its life as a full member of the genus to which it belongs.
Having attained its principle, the former infant is now no longer under-
going the process of coming to be a human being, but has completely
received its nature and is now a member of this species in the full sense. In
this sense the principle (ἀρχή) is the endpoint of the development of this
living thing, but also the starting point at which the full being of the man as
a full grown human being begins.5
That this is the picture that Aristotle has in mind in sentence (1) is also
suggested by a parallel passage in Metaphysics IX 8 which is part of Aristo-
tle’s argument for the claim that ἐνέργεια has priority in essence over
δύναμις.6 In this passage it is also stated that what is undergoing the pro-
cess of coming to be “proceeds towards a principle”, but in addition the
principle (ἀρχή) is explicitly identified with the goal or end (τέλος) at
which the process of coming to be aims.7 The end at which the coming to
be of a living being aims is maturity, i.e. being what it is not only potentially
but in the full sense.
As in our passage from the Physics, this passage from the Metaphysics
also seems to connect the assumption about the goal directedness of the
development of living things with another claim, namely the one stated in
sentence (2) that “what is posterior in coming to be is prior in nature”8, or,
as it is put in Met. IX 8, is prior in form and essence:
5 See also Beere (2009), 300, who characterises the form as it is used in a similar example
in Met. IX 8 in the same way and explains what this means in more detail.
6 See Met. IX 8, 1050a4–9. This passage and the kind of priority discussed there and in its
context has been subject to intense scholarly debate (see for instance Witt (1994), Panayides
(1999), Makin (2003), and Beere (2009), 293–324.). I shall only deal with it insofar as it is of
relevance for developing an understanding of priority in essence that fits both arguments for
locomotion’s priority in essence in Phys. VIII 7, which, as I will argue, have to be read in con-
junction. Although most of the interpreters of Met. IX 8 at least refer to the first argument,
none mentions or discusses the second one. For a minute analysis of the passage from Met.
IX 8 that has proved essential to my understanding of the cited passage and its notion of
priority in essence see Beere (2009), esp. 293–304. My understanding of this kind of priority is
especially indebted to the connection Beere draws between x having priority κατ᾽ οὐσίαν
over y and x’s fulfilling more of the norms that are relevant for the form that x and y have in
common than y (for this see p.315). Note that, in contrast to Beere and most other inter-
preters, I translate κατ᾽ οὐσἰαν with ‘in essence’ for reasons that will become clear later on in
this chapter.
7 καὶ ὅτι ἅπαν ἐπ᾽ ἀρχὴν βαδίζει τὸ γιγνόμενον καὶ τέλος (ἀρχὴ γᾶρ τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα,
τοῦ τέλους δὲ ἕνεκα ἡ γένεσις), Met. XI 8, 1050a7–9: “and because everything that is com-
ing to be proceeds towards a principle, i.e. an end (for, that for the sake of which a thing is, is
its principle, and the becoming is for the sake of the end)” (Transl. Ross, with mod.).
8 τὸ τῇ γενέσει ὕστερον τῇ φύσει πρότερον εἶναι, Phys. VIII 7, 261a14. I take it that
Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be 167
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