Page - 210 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

become clear, not the only—reason for this is the fact that locomotion in a certain sense may be characterised as the weakest kind of change, since what is undergoing a change in place does not change in being or in essence. This then is the reason why locomotion is prior in essence, and why it is the only possible candidate for the kind of change which the outer- most sphere of the stars undergoes and which therefore has its direct and primary source in the first unmoved mover. To conclude, the fifth argument taken as a whole shows that of the four kinds of change locomotion is primary in essence with respect to all things —apart from the first unmoved mover—that are sources of change in the cosmos, namely locomotive living beings and eternal things that are persis- tently performing locomotion. In doing so Aristotle has shown yet another sense in which locomotion is the primary kind of change and that for this reason the only appropriate candidate for the one and eternal change that is caused directly by the first unmoved mover is the kind that, among other types of priority, has essential priority over the other kinds of change. may only change by undergoing locomotion. On this see also what I stated at the beginning of chapter 6.2, p.146. 210 Locomotion is prior in essence ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen