Page - 104 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

4.4.3 Every alteration involves a change in the four basic qualities Aristotle states in GC II 4 that every alteration is a change in respect of tan- gible qualities.84 Such qualities include, for example the three pairs of oppo- sites mentioned in the second argument, i.e. hot-cold, hard-soft, heavy- light, but as we can see in the discussion of these kinds of qualities in GC II 2, there are more of these pairs of qualities, for instance dry-moist (ξηρὸν ὑγρόν).85 This qualification of alteration, however, is striking and appears to be highly problematic, for this could be read as saying that all alteration is nothing more than, and hence may be reduced to, a change in tangible qualities. Then one could either say that this statement contradicts the claim about the irreducibility of the kinds of change, or, in order to avoid this, that the alteration Aristotle is talking about in GC II 4 does not include the other cases of change in quality that I just mentioned and that we, as well as Aristotle, also count as alterations. Both solutions, however, would be unsatisfactory. Yet, the qualification of alteration stated in GC II 4 does not necessarily imply that this kind of a change is nothing but a change in, and thus only concerns, the qualities that are accessible through the sense of touch.86 Rather, there are reasons for thinking that what Aristotle means to say is that every alteration involves a change in the qualities of tangible things, a reading which some commentators favour.87 That this is what Aristotle has in mind seems to follow from the theory developed in De Generatione et Corruptione—especially in the first four chapters of the second book. One of the assumptions made in this context is that the principles (ἀρχαί) of perceptible bodies, or some of them, to be more precise, are the opposite pairs of certain qualities which correspond to touch.88 However, not all of the qualities of touch that are presented in GC II 2 serve as principles, but only two pairs, namely hot-cold and dry-moist, as these are not reducible to any other qualities.89 Yet, this is the case for all other qualities of this kind which derive from the two fundamental pairs of opposites.90 In this sense 84 κατὰ γὰρ τὰ τῶν ἁπτῶν πάθη ἡ ἀλλοίωσις ἐστιν. GC II 4, 331a9–10. 85 GC II 2, 329b18–20. 86 For a list of them see GC II 2. 87 See Philoponus In Gen. 2, 232, 9–12, Williams (1982), 162, Rashed (2005), LXXXVIII, and Buchheim (2010), 460–461. 88 ἐπεὶ οὖν ζητοῦμεν αἰσθητοῦ σώματος ἀρχάς, τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἁπτοῦ, ἁπτὸν δ᾽ οὗ ἡ αἴσθησις ἁφή, φάνερον ὅτι οὐ πᾶσαι αἱ ἐνατιώσεις σώματος εἴδη καὶ ἀρχὰς ποιοῦ- σιν, ἀλλὰ μόνον αἱ κατὰ τὴν ἁφήν, GC II 2, 329b7–10. 89 See GC II 2, 330a24–29. 90 GC II 2, 329b32–34. 104 Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen