The Physics, Vol. II (Books V-VIII)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~130,000 words · 630 passages
Cite this work
- APAAristotle. (n.d.). The Physics, Vol. II (Books V-VIII). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/the-physics-vol-ii-books-v-viii
- MLAAristotle. The Physics, Vol. II (Books V-VIII). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/the-physics-vol-ii-books-v-viii.
- ChicagoAristotle. The Physics, Vol. II (Books V-VIII). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/the-physics-vol-ii-books-v-viii.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The second volume of Aristotle's Physics, Books V to VIII: the theory of continuous motion and the proof of a first mover.
Context and history
The first volume, also in the catalogue, deals with change, nature, the four causes, place, void and time. This one goes on with the classification of motions, with continuity and divisibility — here is the answer to Zeno's paradoxes about Achilles and the tortoise — and ends with Book VIII, which argues that motion never began and that there must be a first mover which moves without being moved. That last book is the one medieval theology turned into a proof of the existence of God, which Aristotle did not intend: his first mover creates nothing and takes care of no one.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Taking the“ subject,’ then, to be a positive and not a negative, though the predicate may be a negative, we seem to have three possibilities. The change (for instance) might be from ‘ hot to cold,’ from ‘ hot to not-hot,’ or from ‘ not-hot to hot,’ or JSrom ‘ not-hot to not-cold.’ Obviously the last of these falls out, for it would include such changes as that from ‘ treble to triangular ’ (Ὁ 35-225 a 12). The forms from * hot to not-hot ’ and its inverse are significant if the negation in one term is specific, and is confined to what is posited by the other term, and if the subject is potentially capable of renouncing or acquiring (as the case may be) the shape, state, or place, posited by the ‘ whither ’ of the movement. But if the negation were absolute, e.g. Μεταβάλλει δὲ τὸ μεταβάλλον πᾶν τὸ μὲν κατὰ συμβεβηκός, οἷον ὅταν λέγωμεν τὸ μουσικὸν βαδίζειν, ὅτι ᾧ συμβέβηκε μουσικῷ εἶναι, τοῦτο βαδίζει: τὸ δὲ τῷ τούτου τι μεταβάλλειν ἁπλῶς 2% λέγεται μεταβάλλειν, οἷον ὅσα λέγεται κατὰ μέρη: » aA ὑγιάζεται yap TO σῶμα, ὅτι 6 ὀφθαλμὸς ἢ 6 θώραξ, ταῦτα δὲ μέρη τοῦ ὅλου σώματος. ἔστι δὲ δή τι ὃ οὗτε κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς κινεῖται οὔτε τῷ ἄλλο τι τῶν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ τῷ αὐτὸ κινεῖσθαι. πρῶτον" καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἐστὶ TO καθ᾽ αὑτὸ κινητόν. κατ᾽ ἄλλην 30 δὲ κίνησιν ἕτερον, οἷον ἀλλοιωτόν: καὶ ἀλλοιώσεως ὑγιαντὸν ἢ θερμαντὸν ἕτερον. στι δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ κινοῦντος ὡσαύτως" TO μὲν ηκὸς κινεῖ, τὸ δὲ κατὰ μέρος (τῷ ARGUMENT (continued) * from hot to non-entity ᾿ or the inverse, we should be in the Jace of absolute genesis or absolute annulling, neither of which (if there were such things) would be movements at all, since the one would have no ‘ whence,’ and the other no All change, transition, or movement, then, must be between two positeely indicated terms each of which is a member of a specific parr of opposites or is intermediate between the pair.…