Page - 27 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

understanding of φύσις as the source of change (κίνησις) in natural things, since this was the reason for developing an understanding of what change is in the first half of the Physics. But to understand what is φύσις as the source of change in natural beings it is not necessary, for instance to discuss an important question raised at the end of Phys. VI and taken up again and discussed in full detail in Phys. VIII, namely how there could be a change that is eternal without being composed of other changes. This observation, but also the fact that all tasks that were laid out before are completed at the end of Phys. IV, supports the claim that Aristotle had good reasons for letting the first part of the eight books of Physics, i.e. the formerly independent treatise On Nature, end with Book IV as is suggested by the testimonies discussed above. The books On Change examine this phenomenon not only for the sake of understanding what nature is, but, as I will now show, present a more general theory of this phenomenon. 2.3.2 Physics V–VIII: The general analysis of change At the beginning of Physics Book V Aristotle does not tell us anything about his motivation for treating of the subject that he deals with in Book V and the following books, nor does he lay out his plan for the subsequent chap- ters. It becomes clear, however, that in the last books of the Physics he is interested in presenting a general analysis and discussion of change and its presupposition, a discussion that goes beyond what was said about the phe- nomenon in the previous books. For, while On Nature primarily deals with change only insofar as it is important in gaining an understanding of nature as the source of the change that things have within them, the treatise On Change aims to develop a general understanding of change as a fundamen- tal phenomenon in the cosmos that is graspable through scientific inquiry. This of course does not mean that the analysis of change conducted in Phys. V–VIII does not contribute anything to a further understanding of nature, only that change in these books is not examined primarily and merely for the sake of understanding nature as a source of change. In Book V Aristotle starts making preparations for this project by first of all developing fundamental notions and drawing distinctions that are essen- tial for working with the phenomenon of change and hence for the subse- quent discussion. In the beginning of this book, therefore, Aristotle analyses different ways in which things are said to change, and what factors deter- mine every change49. He then shows that there are exactly the four different kinds of change, namely change in quality, quantity, place, and substance 49 In Phys. V 1, 224a21–22, Aristotle explicitly points out that his starting point is every- thing which changes (τὸ μεβάλλον πᾶν) in general. The eight books of the Physics 27 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen