Page - 164 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

7. Locomotion is prior in essence 7.1 Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be 7.1.1 Overview The fifth way in which locomotion should be considered as the primary kind of change is that it has priority in essence (κατ᾽ οὐσίαν) over the other kinds of change. Aristotle presents two arguments which taken as a whole are supposed to establish the truth of this premise. The first one shows that locomotion has priority in essence in perishable things (7.1) and the second argues that the same is true with respect to eternal things (7.2). I will start with an analysis of the first argument, and after this I will turn to the second one. The first argument is presented in the following lines: [1] ὅλως τε φαίνεται τὸ γιγνόμενον ἀτελὲς καὶ ἐπ᾽ ἀρχὴν ἰόν, [2] ὥστε τὸ τῇ γενέσει ὕστερον τῇ φύσει πρότερον εἶναι. [3] τελευ- ταῖον δὲ φορὰ πᾶσιν ὑπάρχει τοῖς ἐν γενέσει. διὸ τὰ μὲν ὅλως ἀκί- νητα τῶν ζώντων δι᾽ ἔνδειαν [τοῦ ὀργάνου], οἷον τὰ φυτὰ καὶ πολλὰ γένη τῶν ζῷων, τοῖς δὲ τελειουμένοις ὑπάρχει. ὥστ᾽ εἰ μᾶλ- λον ὑπάρχει φορὰ τοῖς μᾶλλον ἀπειληφόσιν τὴν φύσιν, καὶ ἡ κίν- ησις αὕτη πρώτη τῶν ἄλλων ἄν εἴη κατ᾽ οὐσίαν (261a13–20) [1] In general what is coming to be clearly is incomplete and proceeding towards a principle, [2] so that what is posterior in coming to be is prior in nature. [3] But locomotion belongs lastly to all things that are coming to be. Because of this some of the living beings are entirely incapable of moving due to a lack [of an organ], just as the plants and many genera of animals, but it belongs to those which are about to attain completion. Therefore, if locomotion rather belongs to those which have received their nature to a higher degree, this [kind of] change would also have pri- macy over the other [kinds] in essence This argument aims at showing that locomotion is primary in essence, because it is later in the development of living things than alteration, growth, and diminution. This means, I will argue, that in living beings the capacity to cause locomotion is prior in essence to the capacities for the other two changes. This also finds its expression in the fact that having locomotion is more specific for certain kinds of things and more important ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen