Page - 219 - in The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics

But my study also helps provide a deeper understanding of Aristotle’s general theory of change. The discussion of the different arguments for instance helped spell out specific characteristics of the four kinds of change that to my knowledge have not been made explicit so far, but that, as we have seen, play a crucial role in Aristotle’s general theory of change and may be of importance for understanding other still unclear passages in Aris- totle. For instance, it became clear that Aristotle, contrary to what one might think, holds the view that even the non-substantial changes of altera- tion, growth, and diminution, in a certain sense may entail a change in their subject’s substance, while locomotion is the only type of change for which this is not the case, since locomotion per se, as I pointed out, does not change the inner structure of its subject in any way whatsoever. In addition, more light was also shed on the relation in which the differ- ent changes may stand to each other. Change in place as the primary kind of change, for example, does not entail the involvement of any of the other kinds, while the other kinds always involve an accompanying locomotion in some sense. One might also conclude from my discussion that processes of alteration are necessary constituents of growth, while the latter again may be considered as an essential part of the coming to be of things. This might imply that Aristotle thinks that changes that according to his own account would form a unity in the strict sense, in a certain respect nonetheless need to be considered as consisting of other changes as well, though without being reducible to these constituents. Aristotle, in discussing the priority of locomotion, therefore, not only establishes that his theory about the eternity of change and the first unmoved mover as the ultimate source of all change is indeed justified, but obviously also continues to further develop and refine the general theory of change on which the whole of Physics V–VIII works. An essential part of this theory, as my investigation has made clear, is that change in place, i.e. locomotion, as the most fundamental and important type of change, has a special place among the different kinds of change and that this is what makes it the only appropriate candidate for the change that the first unmoved mover imparts, and that is responsible for all change in the cos- mos. Conclusion 219 ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen