Page - 117 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

Aristotle is due to the fact that it, in virtue of being the only possible candi- date for this change, is responsible for the occurrence of any other change in the universe. It is this extra step which makes locomotion’s ontological priority clear by establishing a connection between the change of things in the cosmos and the unmoved mover as first cause of all changes. Although of course different steps are being taken in the argument, the basic thought behind this passage accordingly seems to be this: (1) There is one continuous and eternal change. (2) Only locomotion can be this change, of which the first unmoved mover as the source of all change is the direct cause, since it alone can be one, continuous and eternal. (3) Therefore, locomotion has ontological priority. But before this inference can be made, a more thorough analysis of the argument is necessary. I will proceed as follows: first, I will focus on show- ing in what way the fact that change exists eternally must imply here that the eternal change needs to be one single change (5.2). In order to do so, the different ways in which change in principle may be eternal need first of all to be analysed (5.2.1). As I will argue it is clear from the context of Phys. VIII that the only way possible in the context of the argument is that the eternal change is one and continuous (5.2.2). Yet, since this also presup- poses understanding which criteria need to be fulfilled for a change to be one and continuous and thus eternal in the required sense, I will examine what is responsible for a change’s having oneness or being a unity in the appropriate way (5.2.3). Building on this work I will then be able to show that locomotion is the only one of the four types of change which in princi- ple can be one, continuous and eternal and that for this reason the primary change that has its direct source in the first unmoved mover can only be locomotion (5.3). After that I will relate this fact to the general remarks Aristotle makes on the different kinds of priority and especially to what he says about the kind that is important in this argument, i.e. ontological priority (5.4.1). Against this background I will then show that locomotion indeed has ontological priority over the other kinds of change, since all changes in the cosmos in the end depend on the primary change that the unmoved mover causes, that is to say, on a change in place, while the occur- rence of this change in place does not necessarily entail any other change (5.4.2). I will conclude by summarizing the results of this chapter (5.5). Overview 117 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen