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fulfilled: the two changes are one in genus and in species, both are altera-
tions that lead from the same starting point, that is a certain disease of the
eyes, to the same endpoint, the health of the eyes, and both changes occur
at one and the same time. But since both processes take place in two differ-
ent men and therefore in two different subjects, condition (1), the unity of
the subject, is not fulfilled. This also makes clear why the domino example
does not present the case of a change which is one without qualification:
also in the two domino examples condition (1) clearly is not fulfilled, since
each domino is the subject of a single change. Therefore, it is clear why this
kind of change cannot be one, for what should one say is undergoing this
change? There is no continuous whole which may serve as the subject of
this change, a change that is composed of a number of succeeding changes.
This chapter also explains why changes that fulfil conditions (1) and (3),
but not condition (2) cannot be one without qualification and continuous
as a whole, and for this reason a fortiori cannot be eternal. Consider the fol-
lowing of Aristotle’s examples. Suppose a man immediately after having
changed his place by running a mile falls into a fever, i.e. is subject to an
alteration.30 One might think that the subject is one since in both changes
the man undergoes a change. The time is one as well, as the latter change
immediately follows the former. Why should one not say that this is one
continuous change?
The reason Aristotle presents is this. Any change that is a change in the
strict sense is continuous. As we know from the explanation of ‘continu-
ous’, something is continuous if the limit at which its parts touch are one
and the same.31 Accordingly, the limit at which adjacent parts of one con-
tinuous change touch must be one and the same. The same is true for two
changes, if we are to think of them as parts of a continuous change that
may be formed by them: the extremes (ἔσχατα), i.e. the limits32, at which
the two changes touch need to be one and the same. But this is the reason
why two changes that differ in genus can never form one continuous
change. Think of Aristotle’s example again: although it is possible that a
man, immediately after having run a mile, falls into a fever, it is impossible
that the extremes of the change in place and the change in quality become
one. The extremes of the two changes differ in category, one being the end
of the run that is connected to a certain place, the other the starting point
of falling into a fever, a certain quality. The same, of course, is true of any
two changes which differ with respect to the genus in which they occur. A
succession of changes that differ in genus, therefore, can never form one
30 For this example see Phys. V 4, 228a27–28.
31 See p.119, n.11 and n.12.
32 As Phys. V 4, 228a29–30, in combination with the explanation of συνεχές in V 3,
show, Aristotle thinks of the extremes (ἔσχατα) of changes as their limits (πέρας).
The unity of the eternal change 125
ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060
© 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
- Title
- The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
- Author
- Sebastian Odzuck
- Editor
- Dorothea Frede
- Gisela Striker
- Publisher
- Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9783647253060
- Size
- 15.5 x 23.2 cm
- Pages
- 238
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- Naturwissenschaften Physik
Table of contents
- Acknowledgements 9
- 1. Introduction 10
- 2. The importance of the primary kind of change 14
- 3. Change in quality and quantity of living beings depends on loco-motion, but not vice versa 42
- 4. Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change, but not vice versa 71
- 4.1 Overview 71
- 4.2 What changes in quantity changes with respect to place 73
- 4.3 What undergoes generation or corruption changes with respect to place 89
- 4.4 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 98
- 4.4.1 Overview 98
- 4.4.2 What does it mean that condensation and rarefaction are principles of quality? 100
- 4.4.3 Every alteration involves a change in the four basic qualities 104
- 4.4.4 Every change in the four basic qualities involves con- densation or rarefaction 108
- 4.4.5 Condensation and rarefaction are forms of aggregation and segregation 110
- 4.4.6 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 112
- 4.4.7 Conclusion 113
- 4.5 Conclusion 113
- 5. All changes depend on the first locomotion, but not vice versa 115
- 6. Locomotion has temporal priority 144
- 6.1 Overview 144
- 6.2 Locomotion has priority in time, since it is the only change eternals can undergo 146
- 6.3 Objection: Locomotion is the last of all changes in perishable things 148
- 6.4 Coming to be presupposes an earlier locomotion 150
- 6.5 The locomotion of the sun as a cause of generation 154
- 6.6 Conclusion 162
- 7. Locomotion is prior in essence 164
- 7.1 Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be 164
- 7.2 Locomotion alone preserves its subject’s essence 186
- 7.2.1 Overview 186
- 7.2.2 Locomotion does not change its subject’s being 188
- 7.2.3 Locomotion preserves its subject’s essence best 190
- 7.2.4 Making x depart from its essence by being part of a change in essence? 195
- 7.2.5 Change in quality or quantity in principle may result in a change in essence 202
- 7.3 Conclusion: Locomotion’s priority in essence 207
- 8. Conclusion 211
- Bibliography 220
- List of Abbreviations 223
- Index Locorum 221
- Index Nominum 223
- Index Rerum 221