ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

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PHYSICS 427
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rise above the material causes which, subserve them
and these are not provided for in the philosophy of a
Democritus. 1 Lastly, if it be true that ' becoming' is a
transition from potentiality to actuality, or a process
development, and that the importance of Aristotle's natural
philosophy consists, to a great extent, in having
first made this notion of development possible and
consciously given it the foremost place, it is clear that
Aristotle
could not favour opinions which started with
an express denial of any becoming ' ' or qualitative alteration,
and left us nothing but a movement in space of unalterable
materials.
Therefore qualitative alterationmust
be added to locomotion, even in the domain of matter, as a
second source of natural occurrences : but over against
both, Aristotle sets the teleology of nature, which uses as
means to its end all that is corporeal and determined
by natural necessity.
Next to Motion in Space, and not without direct
relation to it, come investigations by which Aristotle
further illustrates the idea of motion in his Physics
and these include discussions
of
upon the Infinite, Space,
Time, the Unity and Continuity of Motion, 2 &c.
The Infinite 3 had played an important part in pre-
1
See p. 307, n. 4, and cf. 3
p. The discussion of thisconcep-
359, sq. supra. tion Aristotle introduces vaPhyt.
- He describes those concep- iii. 1, 200, b, 15, -with the words :
tions, indeed, generally, iii. 1, Soxet 8' r> itfojjo-is eivai rav avv^xav,
200, b, 15 sqq. c. 4 vnit., as be- rb 5 1 Jxtrfipov ifitfta'tverai irpwrov iu
longing to the discussion upon raj auvex**; c. 4 init. be remarks
motion, and deals with the first that natural science deals with
three in bks. iii. and iv. before the masses, motion, and time, each *»-• , i-«^UvX<
section upon the kinds of motion of which is either finite or infinite,
but the way in which he treats On what follows see Zbllee,P/