Page - 197 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

which is coming to be is also altered. Such an alteration of the matter by means of heat stands, for instance, at the beginning of the development of a human being. Right after what we would call the fecundation of the ovum, the semen causes a heating of the matter that underlies this process, i.e. the menstrual blood, and thereby initiates a development that, in the end and via many different stages, leads to a full human being.68 The heating of the menstrual blood clearly is an alteration of that out of which the man is coming to be, i.e. of his matter. Thus, Aristotle is correct to assert that in the coming to be of a man, the matter of which he is composed necessarily undergoes an alteration. Yet, one needs to be careful not to confuse this alteration of the material with the coming to be of the human being. The alteration of the matter is a necessary part of the coming to be of the man, just as it is of the statue. But the heating of a lump of bronze alone does not automatically lead to a sta- tue no more than the heating of that out of which a man comes to be neces- sarily leads to a man. Nevertheless, the coming to be of the man and the sta- tue presuppose the alteration of the respective matter; it actually occurs by means of this alteration. Thus, there being such an alteration is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the coming to be of the respective thing.69 Even though Aristotle does not spell this out explicitly, it is clear that an alteration may be a necessary part of corruption (φθορά), that is, of the other kind of substantial change, as well. Suppose, for instance, a statue melts, and in losing its form is destroyed. In this case, too, the matter of the change’s subject—namely the bronze—must undergo an alteration. If the bronze were not heated, the statue would not be destroyed (at least not in the manner described).70 Thus, alteration plays an essential role in this case of corruption too. But, again, one should ask whether the corruption of living organisms also entails, or at least may entail, an alteration of the matter of that which is perishing. Does alteration in the corruption of a human being for instance play a similar crucial role? An example would be a deadly disease in the course of which the body is subject to a fever that makes the body temperature rise higher than 42,6 °C, so that the person affected by it dies; the proteins in the body undergo denaturation and the cells no longer work 68 As rennet makes milk become cheese by means of the vital heat (θερμότης ζωητική) it contains, the male’s semen acts in a similar way on the menstrual fluid. For this see GA I 20, 729a10–14, and especially GA II 4, 739b20–26. 69 For this reason also Wieland (1992), 124, n.13, states that “alles Entstehen vielleicht notwendigerweise dadurch bedingt ist, daß sich etwas ändert.” 70 I do not mean to say that this is the only way in which the corruption of the statue may occur, nor that all possible ways involve an alteration. Yet, the destruction of the statue by melting it certainly does involve a change in quality of the matter. Locomotion alone preserves its subject’s essence 197 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen