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should we call it a work of art. The same is true of natural compounds. What
is potentially flesh or bone has not yet its own ‘nature’, and does not exist
until it receives the form specified in the definition, which we name in
defining what flesh or bone is. Thus in the second sense of ‘nature’ it would
be the shape or form (not separable except in statement) of things which have
in themselves a source of motion. (The combination of the two, e.g. man, is
not ‘nature’ but ‘by nature’ or ‘natural’.)
The form indeed is ‘nature’ rather than the matter; for a thing is more
properly said to be what it is when it has attained to fulfilment than when it
exists potentially. Again man is born from man, but not bed from bed. That is
why people say that the figure is not the nature of a bed, but the wood is-if the
bed sprouted not a bed but wood would come up. But even if the figure is art,
then on the same principle the shape of man is his nature. For man is born
from man.
We also speak of a thing’s nature as being exhibited in the process of
growth by which its nature is attained. The ‘nature’ in this sense is not like
‘doctoring’, which leads not to the art of doctoring but to health. Doctoring
must start from the art, not lead to it. But it is not in this way that nature (in
the one sense) is related to nature (in the other). What grows qua growing
grows from something into something. Into what then does it grow? Not into
that from which it arose but into that to which it tends. The shape then is
nature.
‘Shape’ and ‘nature’, it should be added, are in two senses. For the
privation too is in a way form. But whether in unqualified coming to be there
is privation, i.e. a contrary to what comes to be, we must consider later.
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2
We have distinguished, then, the different ways in which the term ‘nature’
is used.
The next point to consider is how the mathematician differs from the
physicist. Obviously physical bodies contain surfaces and volumes, lines and
points, and these are the subject-matter of mathematics.
Further, is astronomy different from physics or a department of it? It seems
absurd that the physicist should be supposed to know the nature of sun or
moon, but not to know any of their essential attributes, particularly as the
417
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156