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magnitude to an actuality of magnitude: for this would be a body’s coming-to-
be rather than its growth.
We must therefore come to closer quarters with the subject of our inquiry.
We must grapple’ with it (as it were) from its beginning, and determine the
precise character of the growing and diminishing whose causes we are
investigating.
It is evident (i) that any and every part of the growing thing has increased,
and that similarly in diminution every part has become smaller: also (ii) that a
thing grows by the accession, and diminishes by the departure, of something.
Hence it must grow by the accession either (a) of something incorporeal or (b)
of a body. Now, if (a) it grows by the accession of something incorporeal,
there will exist separate a void: but (as we have stated before)’ is impossible
for a matter of magnitude to exist ‘separate’. If, on the other hand (b) it grows
by the accession of a body, there will be two bodies-that which grows and that
which increases it-in the same place: and this too is impossible.
But neither is it open to us to say that growth or diminution occurs in the
way in which e.g. air is generated from water. For, although the volume has
then become greater, the change will not be growth, but a coming to-be of the
one-viz. of that into which the change is taking place-and a passing-away of
the contrasted body. It is not a growth of either. Nothing grows in the process;
unless indeed there be something common to both things (to that which is
coming-to-be and to that which passed-away), e.g. ‘body’, and this grows.
The water has not grown, nor has the air: but the former has passed-away and
the latter has come-to-be, and-if anything has grown-there has been a growth
of ‘body.’ Yet this too is impossible. For our account of growth must preserve
the characteristics of that which is growing and diminishing. And these
characteristics are three: (i) any and every part of the growing magnitude is
made bigger (e.g. if flesh grows, every particle of the flesh gets bigger), (ii)
by the accession of something, and (iii) in such a way that the growing thing
is preserved and persists. For whereas a thing does not persist in the processes
of unqualified coming-to-be or passing-away, that which grows or ‘alters’
persists in its identity through the ‘altering’ and through the growing or
diminishing, though the quality (in ‘alteration’) and the size (in growth) do
not remain the same. Now if the generation of air from water is to be regarded
as growth, a thing might grow without the accession (and without the
persistence) of anything, and diminish without the departure of anything-and
that which grows need not persist. But this characteristic must be preserved:
for the growth we are discussing has been assumed to be thus characterized.
One might raise a further difficulty. What is ‘that which grows’? Is it that to
which something is added? If, e.g. a man grows in his shin, is it the shin
667
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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