Cathbad Bozhko’s Reviews > Aristotle's Physics: A Guided Study > Status Update

**How to bring MOTION into FOCUS through ARISTOTLES definitions**

1. Find the BEING
2. Find the POTENCY of the BEING that the MOTION displays, or to which the particular MOTION is incidental

- MOTION can only gain entrance to the WORLD through the PRIMARY BEINGS that constitute the WORLD

* For a body A, that exhibits MOTION from B to C
- A has some NATURE
- The MOTION from B to C is from one CONDITION to another (CONDITIONS: THINGHOOD, QUALITY, QUANTITY, PLACE)

* In the case of MOTION of body A from one PLACE, B, to another, C,
- Each PLACE (B, C) is a REGION OF THE COSMOS
- Each PLACE (B, C) might or might not be an APPROPRIATE SURROUNDING for body A

* The MOTION of a body A from CONDITION B to C can be so general that the particular B and C need not be specified, for example, in the case of CONTINUITY

**Misinterpretations**:
- A body A that exhibits MOTION from B to C =/= "A is a POINT, B and C are POSITIONS and the MOTION is a LINE between B and C"
- A MOTION from one PLACE to another PLACE =/= "Each PLACE is a nuetral and indifferent POSITION"

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**MATERIAL, FORM and CAUSES through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* MATERIAL and FORM are CAUSES

- Everything that *IS* results from CAUSES
- Every ORIGIN of RESPONSIBILITY is a CAUSE
- All CAUSES stem from BEINGs and are found by looking UPWARD in a CHAIN OF RESPONSIBILITY
- The "EXTERNAL SOURCE OF MOTION", the "first thing from which the motion proceeds", is merely one kind of DERIVATIVE CAUSE

- MATERIAL meets FORM "halfway", and that FORM is always at WORK


* Misinterpretations:
- CAUSES =/= "Events that lead to other events"
- CAUSES =/= "Found by looking backward in time"
- ARISTOTLES CAUSE =/= "Merely the proximate cause of motion / efficient cause"

- Example of MATERIAL and FORMal causes =/= "An inert lump of bronze and a static blueprint"

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**FINAL CAUSES through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* FINAL CAUSE is, in most cases, the most important CAUSE of all

- Every NATURAL BEING is a WHOLE, every NATURAL ACTIVITY leads to / sustains that WHOLENESS
- "NATURAL FINAL CAUSE" == "that for the sake of which" something DOES what it DOES or IS what it IS
- e.g. "Rain falls the SAKE of the EQUILIBRIUM of the COSMOS, in which evaporation is counterbalanced by precipitation in a cycle of ever-renewed WHOLENESS. That WHOLENESS provides a stable CONDITION for the flourishing of plants and of humans in LIVES and ACTS that come to COMPLETION in their own ways."

- ARISTOTLES TELEOLOGY == "ARISTOTLES CLAIM that nothing in NATURE is a fragment of a chance accumulation of parts. To GRASP the FINAL CAUSE of anything is to see how it fits into the ULTIMATE STRUCTURE of THINGS."

- The CHANCE that causes FRAGMENTARY THINGS and "CHANCE COMBINATIONS" "always points back to that which ACTS for the SAKE of something, since it results from the interference of two or more such things. Chance therefore represents not an absence of FINAL CAUSEs but an OVER-ABUNDANCE of them - a FAILURE of FINAL CAUSE resulting from a CONFLICT among FINAL CAUSEs"

- The PATTERNS of NATURE are present "for the most part". There is an "unfailing newness-within-sameness", an interpreation of "causality without recourse to mechanical necessity"

- PURPOSE is one kind of FINAL CAUSE, but not the most GENERAL

- A DELIBERATE ACTION of an INTELLIGENT BEING becomes COMPLETE only in achieving the PURPOSE of the ACTION


**Misinterpretations**:
- FINAL CAUSE =/= "PURPOSE (in every case)"
- FINAL CAUSES =/= "Can belong to NON-HUMAN NATURE"
- e.g. "Rain falls the sake of crops that humans grow"
- NATURE =/= "a realm of necessity"
- PATTERNS of NATURE =/= "are present always"
- NATURE =/= "a realm of randomness"

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**EXAMPLE: The FALLING of a PENCIL off the edge of the DESK onto the FLOOR**

* the BEING that has POTENCY = "the EARTH"

* POTENCY at WORK == "the *EARTH TO BE DOWN*"
* POTENCY at WORK == "the COSMOS to SUSTAIN itself with EARTH at the CENTRE"


- The POTENCY of the *EARTH TO BE DOWN* is an ongoing 'could-be' that may of may not come to completion.

- The POTENCY of the *earth to be down*, is not the mere recognition of a logical possibility, but rather, emerges into ACTIVITY if nothing prevents it.

- In this case, since the DESK no longer prevents the POTENCY of the *EARTH TO BE DOWN*, the ongoing 'could-be' came to completion, resulting in the PENCIL on the FLOOR.

- The PENCIL can "MOVE ON ITS OWN" because the POTENCY of the EARTH is present in it.

- The PENCIL is "set free" to be at WORK as itself when the obstacle of the DESK is removed.

- The MOTION of the PENCIL is DEFINED by the ACTIVITY that GOVERNS its COURSE.

- The final POSITION of the PENCIL is an "ACTUALITY"


**Misinterpretations**:
- POTENCY =/= "the PENCIL BEING on that SPOT on the FLOOR"
- The BEING that has POTENCY =/= "the PENCIL"
- The "MOTIVE POWER" does not belong to the "PENCIL"
- The MOTION of the PENCIL =/= "the change in the POSITION of the PENCIL"
- The final POSITION of the PENCIL =/= "BEING-AT-WORK"

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**CHANGE through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* CHANGE implies the presence of some MATERIAL that can possess or be deprived of FORM

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**NATURE through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* NATURE == "an INNER CAUSE of MOTION"

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**CONDITIONS presupposed by MOTION through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* NATURE == "an INNER CAUSE of MOTION"

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**PLACE through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* PLACE == "A RELATION to the PARTS of the COSMOS"

- VOID == "The EXCLUSIVE array of PLACES in the WORLD results from the impossibility of VOID"

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**TIME through ARISTOTLES definitions**

* TIME == "A RESULT of COMPARISON of MOTIONS to one another"

- TIME is a consequence of MOTION
- The COMPARISON of MOTIONS can only be carried out by a PERCEIVING SOUL

**Misinterpretations**:
- TIME is a pre-supposition