Page - 106 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

to the basic material components of the apple, i.e. its principles and ele- ments. This is even more obvious with a change in shape. In the example presented in GC I 4, where an object made of bronze changes from spheri- cal to angular, it is clear that this change of the underlying bronze is a change with respect to the elements of the body; after all it is a change in the shape of the body. That the other case stated in GC I 4, of a body that alters from health to sickness, is one in which something in the body, i.e. a perceptible quality, changes is self-evident, as the subject of this change is explicitly said to be the body by Aristotle.95 We have seen that all changes in perceptible qualities as well as those in shape (spherical to angular) and condition (becoming sick) involve and are accompanied by changes that occur with respect to the principles and basic elements, although this is merely part of, and certainly not a full description of, what happens in the aforementioned cases of alteration.96 But this means that the simple bodies which are the elements of all compound sub- stances also change. The only way in which they can change is with respect to the four basic qualities hot-cold and dry-moist, which determine the form and being of each element.97 And this, I would argue, is the sense in which each of the previously examined cases of alteration involves an alteration with respect to the qualities that are perceptible by touch. But so far I have only presented cases of alterations with respect to per- ceptible qualities or to shape and conditions. As I said before there are still other cases of alteration, as for instance the change of a human being from uneducated to educated, which according to Cat. 8 counts as an alteration with respect to a state (ἕξις). I will call such alterations, another example of which would be becoming virtuous, a change with respect to psychological qualities.98 According to the claim made in GC II 4 alteration in general— and not only the types of alteration discussed above—can be characterized at least partly as change with respect to tangible qualities. But for this claim to be true one needs to show that for cases of alteration of psychological qualities, as well, a corresponding change must always occur in tangible qualities. This is certainly not the place to present a detailed argument for a connection between what one might call the psychological and the material levels, as this would presuppose an in-depth analysis of other writings of Aristotle’s that is outside the scope of this book. For my purposes the fol- lowing should suffice. 95 See GC I 4, 319b12–13. 96 For the different classifications of change in quality see p.103, n.83. 97 This fits perfectly with the fact that in Phys. IV 3, 210b25–26, Aristotle states that health is connected to the quality of hotness, which accordingly might mean that a change from health to sickness involves a change in the basic qualities of hot and cold. 98 See Cat. 8, 8b26–9a10. 106 Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen