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which is greater-but not that ‘whereby’ he grows, viz. not the food? Then why
have not both ‘grown’? For when A is added to B, both A and B are greater,
as when you mix wine with water; for each ingredient is alike increased in
volume. Perhaps the explanation is that the substance of the one remains
unchanged, but the substance of the other (viz. of the food) does not. For
indeed, even in the mixture of wine and water, it is the prevailing ingredient
which is said to have increased in volume. We say, e.g. that the wine has
increased, because the whole mixture acts as wine but not as water. A similar
principle applies also to ‘alteration’. Flesh is said to have been ‘altered’ if,
while its character and substance remain, some one of its essential properties,
which was not there before, now qualifies it: on the other hand, that ‘whereby’
it has been ‘altered’ may have undergone no change, though sometimes it too
has been affected. The altering agent, however, and the originative source of
the process are in the growing thing and in that which is being ‘altered’: for
the efficient cause is in these. No doubt the food, which has come in, may
sometimes expand as well as the body that has consumed it (that is so, e.g. if,
after having come in, a food is converted into wind), but when it has
undergone this change it has passedaway: and the efficient cause is not in the
food.
We have now developed the difficulties sufficiently and must therefore try
to find a solution of the problem. Our solution must preserve intact the three
characteristics of growth-that the growing thing persists, that it grows by the
accession (and diminishes by the departure) of something, and further that
every perceptible particle of it has become either larger or smaller. We must
recognize also (a) that the growing body is not ‘void’ and that yet there are
not two magnitudes in the same place, and (b) that it does not grow by the
accession of something incorporeal.
Two preliminary distinctions will prepare us to grasp the cause of growth.
We must note (i) that the organic parts grow by the growth of the tissues (for
every organ is composed of these as its constituents); and (ii) that flesh, bone,
and every such part-like every other thing which has its form immersed in
matter-has a twofold nature: for the form as well as the matter is called ‘flesh’
or ‘bone’.
Now, that any and every part of the tissue qua form should grow-and grow
by the accession of something-is possible, but not that any and every part of
the tissue qua matter should do so. For we must think of the tissue after the
image of flowing water that is measured by one and the same measure:
particle after particle comes-to-be, and each successive particle is different.
And it is in this sense that the matter of the flesh grows, some flowing out and
some flowing in fresh; not in the sense that fresh matter accedes to every
668
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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