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agency and the patiency (e.g. both teaching and learning, though they are two,
in the learner), then, first, the actuality of each will not be present in each,
and, a second absurdity, a thing will have two motions at the same time. How
will there be two alterations of quality in one subject towards one definite
quality? The thing is impossible: the actualization will be one.
But (some one will say) it is contrary to reason to suppose that there should
be one identical actualization of two things which are different in kind. Yet
there will be, if teaching and learning are the same, and agency and patiency.
To teach will be the same as to learn, and to act the same as to be acted on-the
teacher will necessarily be learning everything that he teaches, and the agent
will be acted on. One may reply:
(1) It is not absurd that the actualization of one thing should be in another.
Teaching is the activity of a person who can teach, yet the operation is
performed on some patient-it is not cut adrift from a subject, but is of A on B.
(2) There is nothing to prevent two things having one and the same
actualization, provided the actualizations are not described in the same way,
but are related as what can act to what is acting.
(3) Nor is it necessary that the teacher should learn, even if to act and to be
acted on are one and the same, provided they are not the same in definition
(as ‘raiment’ and ‘dress’), but are the same merely in the sense in which the
road from Thebes to Athens and the road from Athens to Thebes are the same,
as has been explained above. For it is not things which are in a way the same
that have all their attributes the same, but only such as have the same
definition. But indeed it by no means follows from the fact that teaching is the
same as learning, that to learn is the same as to teach, any more than it
follows from the fact that there is one distance between two things which are
at a distance from each other, that the two vectors AB and BA, are one and
the same. To generalize, teaching is not the same as learning, or agency as
patiency, in the full sense, though they belong to the same subject, the motion;
for the ‘actualization of X in Y’ and the ‘actualization of Y through the action
of X’ differ in definition.
What then Motion is, has been stated both generally and particularly. It is
not difficult to see how each of its types will be defined-alteration is the
fulfillment of the alterable qua alterable (or, more scientifically, the fulfilment
of what can act and what can be acted on, as such)-generally and again in
each particular case, building, healing, &c. A similar definition will apply to
each of the other kinds of motion.
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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