Page - 178 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics
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responsible for all of the relevant alteration, because it is responsible for
perception, is not sufficient. In addition, perception is not the process one
typically thinks about when speaking about alterations that occur in living
things, and indeed it is not characterized as a full-blooded alteration, but
merely as a sort of (ἀλλοίωσις τις).31 The relation between the cause of the
change, i.e. the sensory part, and that which undergoes the change differs
significantly from the relation between the cause of an animal’s change in
place and quantity. For the argument to work, however, there must be a
part of the soul that is responsible for certain alterations that occur in the
animal in the same way that such a part exists for the other two kinds of
change.
That this is what Aristotle has in mind becomes clear in a passage in De
Partibus Animalium I 1, in which he points out which of the parts is
responsible for alteration.32 In this text Aristotle says explicitly that the
three kinds of non-substantial change (of which the living thing itself is the
source) are caused not by the whole of the soul, but rather by one specific
part.33 In accordance with the De Anima this passage also presents “the part
which is present even in plants”, i.e. the nutritive part, as the origin (ἀρχή)
of growth (and diminution).34 It has the capacity to change nourishment
into (blood and) flesh and in this way makes it possible for the nourishment
to be assimilated into the body in the process of growth.35
According to PA I 1, the perceptive part of the soul (αἰσθητικόν) is the
origin (ἀρχή) of alteration in a living being.36 This is far from self-evident.
It seems that, for Aristotle, an alteration, for instance the case in which I get
a tan, is caused by this part of the soul in the following way.37 The sensory
part receives some input and reacts by initiating the respective change: in
the example, the sun’s shining on my skin alone does not make the colour
of my skin change; this only happens if the sensory part of my soul, having
31 ἡ μὲν γὰρ αἴσθησις ἀλλοίωσις τις εἶναι δοκεῖ, de An. II 4, 415b24.
32 The passage, found in PA I 1, 641b4–8, as a whole is: ἢ οὐκ ἔστι πᾶσα ἡ ψυχὴ κινή-
σεως ἀρχή, οὐδὲ τὰ μόρια ἅπαντα, ἀλλ᾽ αὐξήσεως μὲν ὅπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς φυτοῖς,
ἀλλοιώσεως δὲ τὸ αἰσθητικόν, φορᾶς δ᾽ ἕτερόντι καὶ οὐ τὸ νοητικόν: “However, it is
not the case that all soul is an origin of change, nor all its parts; rather of growth the origin is
the part which is present even in plants, of alteration the perceptive part, and of locomotion
some other part, and not the rational” (Transl. Lennox (2001)).
33 ἢ οὐκ ἔστι πᾶσα ἡ ψυχὴ κινήσεως ἀρχή, οὐδὲ τὰ μόρια ἅπαντα, PA I 1, 641b4–5.
34 ἀλλ᾽ αὐξήσεως μὲν ὅπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς φυτοῖς, PA I 1, 641b6.
35 For the process of growth see GC I 5 and de An. II 4. For my understanding of the pro-
cess of growth see section 3.2.1 in my discussion of the first argument for the priority of loco-
motion, where the relevant passages in Aristotle are discussed.
36 ἀλλοιώσεως δὲ τὸ αἰσθητικόν, PA I 1, 641b6–7.
37 For this see Balme (1992), 91–92, on whose interpretation of this passage from PA I 1
my understanding of it is based.
178 Locomotion is prior in essence
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