Page - 67 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

for the kind of change that is eternal and has its direct source in the first unmoved mover. The way in which I think the corollary should be read then is this: what we have seen in this argument, namely the fact that alteration, growth and diminution presuppose locomotion in the manner described, is one expres- sion of the fact that locomotion is primary. If change is eternal and if loco- motion indeed has priority over the other kinds of change—and the argu- ment shows that we have very good reasons to think so—then locomotion, as the primary kind of change, must also be this eternal change.74 3.6 The sense of priority Now that this has been made clear, it is important to understand which sense of priority with respect to locomotion this argument establishes. For as we know from the treatment of priority in Cat. 12 and Met. V 11 the word prior (πρότερον) is used in a number of different ways. Aristotle himself does not use any specific name for it here, nor does he say which of the different senses of priority is established in this context, but merely claims that change in place, which we also call locomotion, needs to be ‘pri- mary’, without adding any further qualifications.75 This is not the case for the last three of the five arguments, for which Aristotle explicitly points out which kind of priority he thinks each of the arguments shows with regard to locomotion.76 Yet, in what sense Aristotle thinks locomotion is shown to be prior by this argument can be seen by the way in which the relation between the three types of non-substantial change is characterised in the argument. We have seen that locomotion is prior to the other two kinds of non-sub- stantial change in living beings in the sense that locomotion needs to pre- cede the other two in order for them to occur. Therefore, one might think that the kind of priority discussed here is temporal priority, since locomo- tion, as I have shown, in fact must take place before the alteration occurs and hence before the change in magnitude. Yet, this is certainly not the 74 Here is the corollary and my translation of it in full: εἰ ἄρα ἀνάγκη ἀεὶ κίνησιν εἶναι, ἀνάγκη καὶ φορὰν ἀεὶ εἶναι πρώτην τῶν κινήσεων, καὶ φορᾶς, εἰ ἔστιν ἡ μὲν πρώτη ἡ δ᾽ ὑστέρα, τὴν πρώτην. Phys. VIII 7, 260b5–7: “Therefore, if there always must be change, then locomotion as the primary of the changes must also always be, and of locomotion, if there is a primary and a secondary kind, the primary one.” 75 ἥν καλοῦμεν φοράν, ταύτην ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι πρώτην. Phys. VIII 7, 260a26–29: “the one which we call locomotion must be primary.” 76 See Phys. VIII 7, 260b16–19. The sense of priority 67 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen