Page - 548 - in The Complete Aristotle
Image of the Page - 548 -
Text of the Page - 548 -
We must therefore make a fresh start and consider the question; if a thing
moves itself, in what sense and in what manner does it do so? Now everything
that is in motion must be infinitely divisible, for it has been shown already in
our general course on Physics, that everything that is essentially in motion is
continuous. Now it is impossible that that which moves itself should in its
entirety move itself: for then, while being specifically one and indivisible, it
would as a Whole both undergo and cause the same locomotion or alteration:
thus it would at the same time be both teaching and being taught (the same
thing), or both restoring to and being restored to the same health. Moreover,
we have established the fact that it is the movable that is moved; and this is
potentially, not actually, in motion, but the potential is in process to actuality,
and motion is an incomplete actuality of the movable. The movent on the
other hand is already in activity: e.g. it is that which is hot that produces heat:
in fact, that which produces the form is always something that possesses it.
Consequently (if a thing can move itself as a whole), the same thing in respect
of the same thing may be at the same time both hot and not hot. So, too, in
every other case where the movent must be described by the same name in the
same sense as the moved. Therefore when a thing moves itself it is one part of
it that is the movent and another part that is moved. But it is not self-moving
in the sense that each of the two parts is moved by the other part: the
following considerations make this evident. In the first place, if each of the
two parts is to move the other, there will be no first movent. If a thing is
moved by a series of movents, that which is earlier in the series is more the
cause of its being moved than that which comes next, and will be more truly
the movent: for we found that there are two kinds of movent, that which is
itself moved by something else and that which derives its motion from itself:
and that which is further from the thing that is moved is nearer to the principle
of motion than that which is intermediate. In the second place, there is no
necessity for the movent part to be moved by anything but itself: so it can
only be accidentally that the other part moves it in return. I take then the
possible case of its not moving it: then there will be a part that is moved and a
part that is an unmoved movent. In the third place, there is no necessity for
the movent to be moved in return: on the contrary the necessity that there
should always be motion makes it necessary that there should be some
movent that is either unmoved or moved by itself. In the fourth place we
should then have a thing undergoing the same motion that it is causing-that
which is producing heat, therefore, being heated. But as a matter of fact that
which primarily moves itself cannot contain either a single part that moves
itself or a number of parts each of which moves itself. For, if the whole is
moved by itself, it must be moved either by some part of itself or as a whole
by itself as a whole. If, then, it is moved in virtue of some part of it being
moved by that part itself, it is this part that will be the primary self-movent,
548
back to the
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