Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Barnes Jonathan

Author:Barnes, Jonathan [Barnes, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2000-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

13. Title-page of an edition of the Physics published at Lyons in 1561. ‘Most of the Physics is devoted to a study of change in its different forms. For the Physics studies the philosopical background to natural science; and “nature is a principle of motion and change”.’

That in every change there is an initial state and an end state is surely obvious; and the states must be distinct, or else no change will have occurred. (An object may change from white to black, and then back to white again. But if its colour is the same throughout a given period, then it has not changed colour during that period.) Again, in the case of qualitative change, of quantitative change, and of locomotion, it is plain that there must be an item which persists through the change. On the one hand, ‘there is no change apart from the things that change’, or ‘all change is a change of something’; on the other hand, this ‘something’ must persist (for it is one thing for my full glass to become empty, another for it to be replaced by an empty glass). So far so good; but Aristotle’s analysis appears to have some difficulty with change in substance.

It is easy to imagine that the two end-states in generation and destruction are non-existence and existence. When Socrates came into being, he changed from a state of non-existence to a state of existence; and when he died he made the reverse change. But a moment’s reflection shows the absurdity of this idea. For Socrates does not persist through his generation, nor does he persist through his destruction. On the contrary, these two changes mark the beginning and the ending of Socrates’ existence. At this point Aristotle observes that substances – material bodies – are in a sense composite. A house, for example, consists of bricks and timbers arranged in a certain structure; a statue consists of marble or bronze carved or cast into a certain shape; an animal consists of tissues (flesh, blood, and the rest) organized on certain principles. All substances thus consist of two ‘parts’, stuff and structure, which Aristotle habitually calls ‘matter’ and ‘form’. Matter and form are not physical parts of substances; nor can you cut up a bronze statue into two separate bits, its bronze and its shape. On the other hand, we must not imagine the matter as the physical aspect of a substance and the form as some sort of non-physical additive: the shape of a football is just as physical an aspect as its leathery texture. Rather, matter and form are logical parts of substances; that is to say, an account of what some specific substance is – an account of what a statue is or of what an octopus is – will require mention both of its stuff and of its structure.

We can now see that ‘whatever comes into being must always be divisible, and be part thus and part thus – I mean part matter and part form’.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.