Page - 124 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

primarily caused by the first unmoved mover and that according to Phys. VIII 6 must be one, eternal and continuous.22 Every change, Aristotle tells us in Phys. V 4, is basically determined by three factors: every change presupposes (1) a subject which is undergoing the change (ὃ, τὸ κινούμενον), (2) something in which the change occurs (ἐν ᾧ, ἔν τινι), and (3) a time at which it occurs (ὅτε, ἐν χρόνῳ).23 Factors (1) and (3) are clear, but (2) needs further elucidation. Suppose, for instance, I am walking from my office to the cafeteria: the subject of the change is me, as I am the one undergoing a change in place. I may need five minutes to arrive at the cafeteria, so that the time in which the change occurs will be these five minutes. Factor (2), i.e. the that in which of the change, refers to the genus and species to which the change belongs. My walk from the office to the cafeteria is a change in respect of place and may be qualified even further with respect to the respective species of the change.24 For a change to be one without qualification, Aristotle tells us, each of these three factors has to be one. As the discussion in Phys. V 4 shows, Aristotle, by presenting these three criteria for being one change without qualification, spells out what it implies to be one continuous change with respect to these three factors.25 The three conditions that need to be fulfilled for a change to have this kind of unity are as follows: 1. The subject that undergoes the change must be one26 2. That in which the change occurs must be one and indivisible27 3. The time in which the change occurs must be one and without any gaps28 This becomes clearer when we look at some of the examples which Aristotle presents in this context and which illustrate cases in which the unity of a change is not given. In one of these examples two men are recovering from the same disease at the same time.29 In this case conditions (2) and (3) are 22 See Phys. VIII 8, 261b36–262a5, where Aristotle points out that a change that is one in the necessary sense needs to fulfil the three criteria of being one ἁπλῶς that I present in this section. 23 See Phys. V 4, 227b23–26. 24 Note that, unlike in Phys. V 1, the ἐν ᾧ accordingly does not stand for the time in which the change occurs (see Phys. V 1, 224a35). 25 See Phys. V 4, 228a31–b10. 26 ἕν, μὴ κατὰ συμβεβηκός, μὴ κοινόν, 227b31–228a1, 228a21–22. 27 ἕν, ἄτομον, 227b29–30. 28 ἕνα, μὴ διαλείπειν, 227b30–31. 29 εἴη γὰρ ἂν ἅμα δύο ἀνθρώπους ὑγιάζεσθαι τὴν αὐτὴν ὑγίανσιν, οἷον ὀφθαλμίας, Phys. V 4, 228a1–2: “for there might be a case of two men at the same time restored to health in the same way, as for instance from a disease of the eyes” (Transl. Hardie & Gaye with mod.). 124 All changes depend on the first locomotion, but not vice versa ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen