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The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle's Physics © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 Hypomnemata Untersuchungen zur Antike und zu ihrem Nachleben Herausgegeben von Ewen Bowie, Albrecht Dihle, Dorothea Frede, Hans-Joachim Gehrke, Günther Patzig, Karla Pollmann, Christiane Reitz, Christoph Riedweg, Gisela Striker Band 196 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 Sebastian Odzuck The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle’s Physics Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 Verantwortliche Herausgeberinnen: Dorothea Frede und Gisela Striker Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar ISBN 978-3-525-25306-9 ISBN 978-3-647-25306-0 (E-Book) Umschlagabbildung: Sanitarium Charleroi, Christian Odzuck, Collage, 18 cm × 24 cm, 2013 © 2013 VG Bildkunst, Bonn. Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Geschwister Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung für Geisteswissenschaften in Ingelheim am Rhein. © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht LLC, Bristol, CT, U.S.A. www.v-r.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. – Printed in Germany. Gesamtherstellung: L Hubert & Co, Göttingen Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier. © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 Contents Acknowledgements ........................... 9 1. Introduction ............................ 10 2. The importance of the primary kind of change . 14 2.1 Overview ........................... 14 2.2 The arrangement of the Physics . 15 2.2.1 First option: Books VI–VIII as the treatise On Change 18 2.2.1.1 Andronicus ...................... 19 2.2.1.2 Theophrastus’ letter . 19 2.2.1.3 References in Aristotle . 21 2.2.1.4 Eudemus ........................ 21 2.2.2 Second option: Books V–VIII as the treatise On Change ......................... 22 2.3 The eight books of the Physics . 25 2.3.1 Physics I–IV: Examining change for the sake of understanding nature . 25 2.3.2 Physics V–VIII: The general analysis of change . 27 2.4 Physics VIII .......................... 31 2.4.1 Overview ....................... 31 2.4.2 The argument of Physics VIII . 31 2.4.3 The importance of the primary kind of change . 34 2.5 Conclusion .......................... 40 3. Change in quality and quantity of living beings depends on loco- motion, but not vice versa ..................... 42 3.1 Overview ........................... 42 3.2 Growth and diminution presuppose alteration . 44 3.2.1 Growth presupposes alteration . 45 3.2.2 Diminution presupposes alteration . 48 3.3 Alteration presupposes locomotion . 49 3.4 Does locomotion precede all occurrences of change in quan- tity? .............................. 53 3.5 The reason for the restriction of the argument’s scope . 58 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 3.6 The sense of priority ..................... 67 3.7 Conclusion .......................... 69 4. Locomotion necessarily accompanies each of the other kinds of change, but not vice versa ...................... 71 4.1 Overview ........................... 71 4.2 What changes in quantity changes with respect to place . 73 4.2.1 Overview ....................... 73 4.2.2 What is growing moves to a larger place . 74 4.2.3 Change in place implies no change in the spatial order of the subject’s parts . 78 4.2.4 A possible objection . 81 4.2.5 Compatibility with the irreducibility of the kinds of change ......................... 85 4.2.6 Conclusion ...................... 88 4.3 What undergoes generation or corruption changes with respect to place ........................ 89 4.3.1 Overview ....................... 89 4.3.2 Generation and corruption in virtue of aggregation and segregation .................... 90 4.3.3 What aggregates or segregates must change with respect to place .................... 96 4.3.4 Conclusion ...................... 97 4.4 What changes in quality changes with respect to place . 98 4.4.1 Overview ....................... 98 4.4.2 What does it mean that condensation and rarefaction are principles of quality? . 100 4.4.3 Every alteration involves a change in the four basic qualities ........................ 104 4.4.4 Every change in the four basic qualities involves con- densation or rarefaction . 108 4.4.5 Condensation and rarefaction are forms of aggrega- tion and segregation . 110 4.4.6 What changes in quality changes with respect to place 112 4.4.7 Conclusion ...................... 113 4.5 Conclusion .......................... 113 5. All changes depend on the first locomotion, but not vice versa . 115 5.1 Overview ........................... 115 5.2 The unity of the eternal change . 118 5.2.1 Two ways in which change may be eternal . 118 5.2.2 Why the eternal change must be one and continuous . 121 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 5.2.3 The criteria for being one continuous change . 123 5.2.4 What is better is the case in nature . 127 5.3 Locomotion alone can be one and eternal . 130 5.3.1 None of the other three kinds of change can be one and eternal ....................... 131 5.3.2 Only circular locomotion can be one and eternal . 134 5.4 Locomotion has ontological priority . 137 5.4.1 Ontological priority . 137 5.4.2 A third sense in which locomotion is ontologically prior .......................... 139 5.5 Conclusion .......................... 142 6. Locomotion has temporal priority . 144 6.1 Overview ........................... 144 6.2 Locomotion has priority in time, since it is the only change eternals can undergo ..................... 146 6.3 Objection: Locomotion is the last of all changes in perishable things ............................. 148 6.4 Coming to be presupposes an earlier locomotion . 150 6.5 The locomotion of the sun as a cause of generation . 154 6.6 Conclusion .......................... 162 7. Locomotion is prior in essence . 164 7.1 Locomotion is prior in essence, since it is last in coming to be ............................... 164 7.1.1 Overview ....................... 164 7.1.2 The reversed priority claim . 166 7.1.3 A different use of the term ‘locomotion’ . 172 7.1.4 Does locomotion come to things last? . 175 7.1.4.1 Capacities of the soul . 176 7.1.4.2 Priority in essence of the locomotive capacity . 179 7.1.5 Another sense of priority in essence . 182 7.1.6 Conclusion ...................... 184 7.2 Locomotion alone preserves its subject’s essence . 186 7.2.1 Overview ....................... 186 7.2.2 Locomotion does not change its subject’s being . 188 7.2.3 Locomotion preserves its subject’s essence best . 190 7.2.4 Making x depart from its essence by being part of a change in essence? . 195 7.2.4.1 Alteration as part of a change in essence . 195 7.2.4.2 Growth and diminution as part of change in essence . 199 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 8 Contents 7.2.4.3 Locomotion as a part of a change in essence? . 201 7.2.5 Change in quality or quantity in principle may result in a change in essence . 202 7.3 Conclusion: Locomotion’s priority in essence . 207 8. Conclusion ............................. 211 Bibliography .............................. 220 List of Abbreviations .......................... 223 Index Locorum ............................. 221 Index Nominum ............................ 223 Index Rerum .............................. 221 © 2014, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525253069 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647253060 Acknowledgements This book is a slightly revised version of my dissertation, which was accepted at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in 2012. Above all, I would like to thank my three supervisors Jonathan Beere, Ben Morison, and Christof Rapp. My dissertation benefited greatly from working under their guidance and I am most thankful for the generous support they have given me in many different respects both while I was working on this project and afterwards. I was especially fortunate to have had the opportunity to continually work with Ben Morison while on a short stay in Oxford, during several months at Princeton, and – despite being on the other side of the Atlantic – from my desk in Erlangen. Our conversations and his numerous comments and sug- gestions greatly improved my work both in detail and from a broader per- spective and I am very grateful for his support and encouragement. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Friedemann Buddensiek for his constant support over the past few years and for helping me start my inquiry into the priority of locomotion in the first place. Jacob Rosen, in addition to discussing various ideas, read and critiqued an earlier draft of chapter 7 and helped me clarify important points made there. Joshua Crone read the entire work and made many helpful suggestions, for which he has my sincere thanks. I am indebted to many other people for comments and help of various
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