Page - 45 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

μέγεθος) in general, as he pointed out just two lines earlier.3 Accordingly, it would make no sense if Aristotle argued for the assumption that only growth, that is, increase in size, presupposes alteration, since this would not lead to the conclusion that locomotion—in virtue of being necessary for an alteration to occur and thus being prior to it—is prior also to change in magnitude.4 Therefore, the claim that serves as the first premise of the argu- ment and for which Aristotle is actually arguing here is that both growth and diminution presuppose alteration, although only the reasons for mak- ing this assumption with respect to growth are explicitly stated. I will now present the argument for the claim that growth presupposes alteration (3.2.1) and afterwards give reasons why this is also true of diminution (3.2.2). 3.2.1 Growth presupposes alteration The argument presented for the claim that growth presupposes a preceding alteration basically is that growth of organisms always occurs through the addition of something to that which is growing, in the sense that food is taken in and by undergoing certain changes becomes a part of the body. This process of transformation of food necessarily involves alteration. As we will see, something similar also takes place in the case of diminution. For this process occurs by means of removal of some material from that which is shrinking. Furthermore, this process of separation, I will argue, necessarily involves alteration. In 260a30–33 Aristotle explains why growth cannot occur without altera- tion and states four points from which this is supposed to become clear: (1) growth on the one hand takes place “by what is like” (ὁμοίῳ), but on the other hand “by what is unlike” (ἀνομοίῳ).5 The reason presented for the former is that (2) “the contrary is said to be food for the contrary”6, while the argument given for the latter is that (3) the addition that is part of any growth occurs by “like becoming alike.”7 Besides, (4) the change between contraries that is involved in this process must be an alteration.8 All this as 3 See Phys. VIII 7, 260a26–29. 4 This is not the only place where Aristotle uses αὔξησις as a shorthand for αὔξησις καὶ φθίσις. See for instance GC I 5, 320a8, where Aristotle introduces the kind of change dis- cussed now merely as αὔξησις and asks how it differs from the other kinds of change. 5 τὸ γὰρ αὐξανόμενον ἔστιν μὲν ὡς ὁμοίῳ αὐξάνεται, ἔστιν δ᾽ ὡς ἀνομοίῳ. Phys. VIII 7, 260a30–31. 6 τροφὴ γὰρ λέγεται τῷ ἐναντίῳ τὸ ἐναντίον. Phys. VIII 7, 260a31–32. 7 προσγίγνεται δὲ πᾶν γιγνόμενον ὅμοιον ὁμοίῳ. Phys. VIII 7, 260a32. 8 ἀνάγκη οὖν ἀλλοίωσιν εἶναι τὴν εἰς τἀναντία μεταβολήν. Phys. VIII 7, 260a33. Growth and diminution presuppose alteration 45 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen