Page - 13 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

priority, although there are facts that seem to contradict this assumption (chapter 6). This will be followed by my examination of the last of the five arguments (261a13–23). I will argue that Aristotle makes clear that locomotion is prior in essence by means of two sub-arguments, the first presenting reasons for the claim that locomotion has this kind of priority with respect to perish- able self-movers like animals, while the second showing the same with respect to eternal things that may function as the causes of change in other things. The reason for this, I will point out, lies on the one hand in the fact that locomotion is prior in essence in living things, since having locomotion is more important for being what they are according to their form than hav- ing any of the other types of change, while the second sub-argument makes use of the fact that locomotion alone completely preserves its subject’s essence and, thus, is the only change eternal things can undergo (chapter 7). My final step will be to give an overview of the results of my study and evaluate what they may imply for the larger context of Phys. VIII as well as for Aristotle’s general theory of the phenomenon of change (chapter 8). Introduction 13 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen