PHIL 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: On The Soul, Natural Science, Morphism
3 May 2018
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Department
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History of Ancient Philosophy
11.07 Lecture Notes – Metaphysics, De Anima
Change
- Superficial understanding and observation of change – no real scientific instruments to
account for change
- Understanding where change comes from
o Parm: change is impossible
o H: change is the most fundamental thing
- Aristotle divides the changes in natural sciences into two groups
o Natural science – the field that deals with things that change
▪ Accidental – changing a quantity or quality (gaining or losing of a
property) associated ith soethig that is’t essetial to it
• Ex: if someone lost some weight
▪ Substantial – a coming to be or perishing of a certain substance
• Ex: if someone dies
o He mostly cares about change in relation to living organisms
▪ Would say that artifacts are not truly substances
o He also mostly cares about substantial change
▪ In order to account for substantial change, you need to have matter
(material cause) and form (formal cause)
- According to Aristotle, you need three things to account for any type of change
o 1. Persisting thing – something underlying the change that is not itself changed
through the change
o 2. A lak – one of a pair of opposites that is missing in the persisting thing
o 3. Form – form acquired across the change that is the opposite of what the
lak is that eplais hat the e thigs is
o When explaining a change from a cold thing to a hot thing
▪ The thing is persisting
▪ The lack is the hotness
▪ The form of the heat is acquired
o Ex: If Socrates learns to play the piano
▪ Lack: not being able to play
▪ New form: a form of being able to play
▪ Persisting thing: Socrates
- In a substantial change, the substance itself is change and so the substance itself is not
the persisting thing – a problem that Aristotle runs into
o Answer to the problem – the persisting thing that underlies the substantial
change is the matter of the substance
o Ex: pile of bricks into a house – (the substantial change is that the bricks have
taken on the form of the house and the essence of the house has been acquired)
the bricks are the persisting thing
- What is acquired in a substantial generation (coming to be) is just new arrangement –
the form
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Document Summary
Superficial understanding and observation of change no real scientific instruments to account for change. Understanding where change comes from: parm: change is impossible, h: change is the most fundamental thing. In order to account for substantial change, you need to have matter (material cause) and form (formal cause) According to aristotle, you need three things to account for any type of change: 1. Persisting thing something underlying the change that is not itself changed through the change: 2. A (cid:862)la(cid:272)k(cid:863) one of a pair of opposites that is missing in the persisting thing: 3. Four kinds of causes: when talking about causes, efficient causes have to do with explanation, all four kinds of causes are necessary to give a complete account of the nature of some object. For substantial change, the matter is the persisting thing: you (cid:272)a(cid:374) i(cid:373)agi(cid:374)e the (cid:862)(cid:373)atte(cid:396)(cid:863) (cid:272)ha(cid:374)gi(cid:374)g. Potentiality (dunamis) (cid:862)po(cid:449)e(cid:396)s(cid:863), (cid:373)atte(cid:396) is ide(cid:374)tified (cid:449)ith the passi(cid:448)e po(cid:449)e(cid:396)s of thi(cid:374)gs: passive dunamis, active dunamis.
