The Politics of Aristotle

by Aristotle

  It is also worth considering how time can be related to the soul; and why time is thought to be in everything, both in earth and in sea and in heaven. It is because it is an attribute, or state, of movement (since it is the number of movement) and all these things are movable (for they are all in place), and time and movement are [20] together, both in respect of potentiality and in respect of actuality?

  Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be some one to count there cannot be anything that can be counted either, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted. But if nothing but soul, or in soul [25] reason, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if movement can exist without soul. The before and after are attributes of movement, and time is these qua countable.

  One might also raise the question what sort of movement time is the number of. Must we not say ‘of any kind’? For things both come into being in time and pass [30] away, and grow, and are altered, and are moved locally; thus it is of each movement qua movement that time is the number. And so it is simply the number of continuous movement, not of any particular kind of it.

  But other things as well may have been moved now, and there would be a [223b1] number of each of the two movements. Is there another time, then, and will there be two equal times at once? Surely not. For a time that is both equal and simultaneous is one and the same time, and even those that are not simultaneous are one in kind; for if there were dogs, and horses, and seven of each, it would be the same number. [5] So, too, movements that have simultaneous limits have the same time, yet the one may in fact be fast and the other not, and one may be locomotion and the other alteration; still the time of the two changes is the same if it is both equal and [10] simultaneous; and for this reason, while the movements are different and separate, the time is everywhere the same, because the number of equal and simultaneous movements is everywhere one and the same.

  Now there is such a thing as locomotion, and in locomotion there is included circular movement, and everything is counted by some one thing homogeneous with [15] it, units by a unit, horses by a horse, and similarly times by some definite time, and, as we said, time is measured by motion as well as motion by time (this being so because by a motion definite in time the quantity both of the motion and of the time is measured): if, then, what is first is the measure of everything homogeneous with it, regular circular motion is above all else the measure, because the number of this [20] is the best known. Now neither alteration nor increase nor coming into being can be regular, but locomotion can be. This also is why time is thought to be the movement of the sphere, viz. because the other movements are measured by this, and time by this movement.

  [25] This also explains the common saying that human affairs form a circle, and that there is a circle in all other things that have a natural movement and coming into being and passing away. This is because all other things are discriminated by time, and end and begin as though conforming to a cycle; for even time itself is [30] though to be a circle. And this opinion again is held because time is a measure of this kind of locomotion and is itself measured by such. So that to say that the things that come into being form a circle is to say that there is a circle of time; and this is to say that it is measured by the circular movement; for apart from the measure [224a1] nothing else is observed in what is measured; the whole is just a plurality of measures.

  It is said rightly, too, that the number of the sheep and of the dogs is the same number if the two numbers are equal, but not the same decad or the same ten; just [5] as the equilateral and the scalene are not the same triangle, yet they are the same figure, because they are both triangles. For things are called the same so-and-so if they do not differ by a differentia of that thing, but not if they do; e.g. triangle differs from triangle by a differentia of triangle, therefore they are different triangles; but they do not differ by a differentia of figure, but are in one and the [10] same division of it. For a figure of one kind is a circle and a figure of another kind a triangle, and a triangle of one kind is equilateral and a triangle of another kind scalene. They are the same figure, then, and that is a triangle, but not the same triangle. Therefore the number of two groups also is the same number (for their number does not differ by a differentia of number), but it is not the same decad; for [15] the things of which it is asserted differ; one group are dogs, and the other horses.

  We have now discussed time—both time itself and the matters appropriate to the consideration of it.

  BOOK V

  1 · Everything which changes does so in one of three ways. It may accidentally, as for instance when we say that something musical walks, that which walks being something in which aptitude for music is an accident. Again, a thing is said without qualification to change because something belonging to it changes, i.e. in statements which refer to part of the thing in question: thus the body is restored to [25] health because the eye or the chest, that is to say a part of the whole body, is restored to health. And there is the case of a thing which is in motion neither accidentally nor in respect of something else belonging to it, but in virtue of being itself directly in motion. Here we have a thing which is essentially movable: and that which is so is a different thing according to the particular variety of motion: for instance it may be a thing capable of alteration—and within the sphere of alteration it is again a different thing according as it is capable of being restored to health or [30] capable of being heated. And there are the same distinctions in the case of the mover: one thing causes motion accidentally, another partially (because something belonging to it causes motion), another of itself directly, as, for instance, the physician heals, the hand strikes. We have, then, the following factors: that which directly causes motion, and that which is in motion; further, that in which motion takes place, namely time, and (distinct from these three) that from which and that to which it proceeds (for every motion proceeds from something and to something, [224b1] that which is directly in motion being distinct from that to which it is in motion and that from which it is in motion: for instance, wood, hot, and cold—the first is that which is in motion, the second is that to which the motion proceeds, and the third is that from which it proceeds). This being so, it is clear that the motion is in the wood, not in its form; for the motion is neither caused nor experienced by the form or the [5] place or the quantity. So we are left with a mover, a moved, and that to which the motion proceeds; for it is that to which rather than that from which the motion proceeds that gives its name to the change. Thus perishing is change to not-being, thought it is also true that that which perishes changes from being; and becoming is change to being, though it is also change from not-being. [10]

  Now a definition of motion has been given above. Every goal of motion, whether it be a form, an affection, or a place, is immovable, as, for instance, knowledge and heat. Here, however, a difficulty may be raised. Affections, it may be said, are motions, and whiteness is an affection: thus there may be change to a motion. To this we may reply that it is not whiteness but whitening that is a motion. [15] Here also things may hold accidentally, or partially and with reference to something other than itself, or directly and with no reference to anything else: for instance, a thing which is becoming white changes accidentally to an object of thought, the colour being only accidentally the object of thought; it changes to colour, because white is a part of colour (or to Europe, because Athens is a part of [20] Europe); but it changes essentially to white colour. It is now clear in what way a thing is in motion essentially or accidentally, and in respect of something other than itself or itself directly moving—in the case both of the mover and of the moved; and it is also clear that the motion is not in the form but in that which is in motion, that is [25] to say the movable in actuality. Now accidental change we may leave out of account; for it is to be found in e
verything, at any time, and in any subject. Change which is not accidental on the other hand is not to be found in everything, but only in contraries, in things intermediate between contraries, and in contradictories, as may be shown by induction. An intermediate may be a starting-point of change, [30] since it serves as contrary to either of two contraries; for the intermediate is in a sense the extremes. Hence we speak of the intermediate as in a sense a contrary relatively to the extremes and of either extreme as a contrary relatively to the intermediate: for instance, the central note is low relatively to the highest and high relatively to the lowest, and grey is white relatively to black and black relatively to white.

  [225a1] And since every change is from something to something—as the word itself indicates, implying something ‘after’ something else, that is to say something earlier and something later31—that which changes must change in one of four ways: from [5] subject to subject, from subject to non-subject, from non-subject to subject, or from non-subject to non-subject, where by ‘subject’ I mean what is affirmatively expressed. So it follows necessarily from what has been said that there are three kinds of change, that from subject to subject, that from subject to non-subject, and [10] that from non-subject to subject; for that from non-subject to non-subject is not change, as in that case there is no opposition either of contraries or of contradictories.

  Now change from non-subject to subject, the relation being that of contradiction, is coming to be—unqualified coming to be when the change takes place in an unqualified way, particular coming to be when the change is change in a [15] particular character: for instance, a change from not-white to white is a coming to be of the particular thing, white, while change from unqualified not-being to being is coming to be in an unqualified way, in respect of which we say that a thing comes to be without qualification, not that it comes to be some particular thing. Change from subject to non-subject is perishing—unqualified perishing when the change is from being to not-being, particular perishing when the change is to the opposite negation, the distinction being the same as that made in the case of coming to be.

  [20] Now things are said not to be in several ways; and there can be motion neither of that which is not in respect of the affirmation or negation of a predicate, nor of that which is not in the sense that it only potentially is, that is to say the opposite of that which actually is in an unqualified sense; for although that which is not white or not good may nevertheless be in motion accidentally (for example that which is [25] not white might be a man), yet that which is without qualification not a ‘this’ cannot in any sense be in motion: therefore it is impossible for that which is not to be in motion. This being so, it follows that becoming cannot be a motion; for it is that which is not that becomes. For however true it may be that it accidentally becomes, it is nevertheless correct to say that it is that which is not that in an unqualified sense becomes. And similarly it is impossible for that which is not to be at rest.

  [30] There are these difficulties, then, [in the way of the assumption that that which is not can be in motion],32 and it may be further objected that, whereas everything which is in motion is in place, that which is not is not in place; for then it would be somewhere.

  So, too, perishing is not a motion; for a motion has for its contrary either another motion or rest, whereas perishing is the contrary of becoming.

  Since, then, every motion is a kind of change, and there are only the three kinds of change mentioned above; and since of these three those which take the form of becoming and perishing, that is to say those which imply a relation of contradiction, [225b1] are not motions: it necessarily follows that only change from subject to subject is motion. And every such subject is either a contrary or an intermediate (for a privation may be allowed to rank as a contrary) and can be affirmatively expressed, as naked, toothless, or black. If, then, the categories are severally distinguished as [5] substance, quality, place, [time],33 relation, quantity, and activity or passivity, it necessarily follows that there are three kinds of motion—qualitative, quantitative, and local.

  2 · In respect of substance there is no motion, because substance has no [10] contrary among things that are. Nor is there motion in respect of relation; for it may happen that when one correlative changes, the other, although this does not itself change, may be true or not true, so that in these cases the motion is accidental. Nor is there motion in respect of agent and patient—in fact there can never be motion of mover and moved, because there cannot be motion of motion or becoming of [15] becoming or in general change of change.

  For in the first place there are two ways in which motion of motion is conceivable. The motion of which there is motion might be conceived as subject; e.g. a man is in motion because he changes from fair to dark. Can it be that in this sense motion grows hot or cold, or changes place, or increases or decreases? Impossible; [20] for change is not a subject. Or can there be motion of motion in the sense that some other subject changes from a change to another mode of being [as that of a man from illness to health]?34 Even this is possible only in an accidental sense. For the movement itself is change from one form to another, as that of a man from illness to health. (And the same holds good of becoming and perishing, except that in [25] these processes we have a change to a particular kind of opposite, while the other, motion, is a change to a different kind.) So, if there is to be motion of motion, that which is changing from health to sickness must simultaneously be changing from this very change to another. It is clear, then, that by the time that he has become sick, he must also have changed to whatever may be the other change concerned (for he could be at rest). Moreover this other can never be any casual change, but must be a change from something definite to some other definite thing. So in this case it must be the opposite change, viz. convalescence. It is only accidentally that [30] there can be change of change, e.g. there is a change from remembering to forgetting only because the subject of this change changes at one time to knowledge, at another to ignorance.

  Again, if there is to be change of change and becoming of becoming, we shall have an infinite regress. Thus if one of a series of changes is to be a change of [226a1] change, the preceding change must also be so: e.g. if simple becoming was ever in process of becoming, then that which was becoming was also in process of becoming, so that we should not yet have arrived at what was in process of simple becoming but only at what was already in process of becoming in process of becoming. And this again was sometime in process of becoming, so that it is not yet in process of becoming in process of becoming. And since in an infinite series there [5] is no first term, here there will be no first stage and therefore no following stage either. On this hypothesis, then, nothing can become or be moved or change.

  Again, if a thing is capable of any particular motion, it is also capable of the corresponding contrary motion or the corresponding coming to rest, and a thing that is capable of becoming is also capable of perishing: consequently, what is in process of becoming in process of becoming is in process of perishing at the very moment when it is in process of becoming in process of becoming; since it cannot be in process of perishing when it is just beginning to become or after it has ceased to become; for that which is in process of perishing must be in existence.

  [10] Again, there must be matter underlying all processes of becoming and changing. What can this be in the present case? It is either the body or the soul that undergoes alteration: what is it that correspondingly becomes motion or becoming? And again what is the goal of their motion? It must be the motion or becoming of something from something to something else. But in what sense can this be so? For [15] the becoming of learning cannot be learning: so neither can the becoming of becoming be becoming, nor can the becoming of any process be that process.

  Again, since there are three kinds of motion, the subject and the goal of motion must be one or other of these, e.g. locomotion will have to be altered or to be locally moved.

  To sum up, then, since everything
that is moved is moved in one of three ways, [20] either accidentally, or partially, or essentially, change can change only accidentally, as e.g. when a man who is being restored to health runs or learns: and accidental change we have earlier decided to leave out of account.

  Since, then, motion can belong neither to substance nor to relation nor to agent and patient, it remains that there can be motion only in respect of quality, quantity, [25] and place; for with each of these we have a pair of contraries. Motion in respect of quality let us call alteration, a general designation that is used to include both contraries; and by quality I do not here mean a property of substance (in that sense that which constitutes a specific distinction is a quality) but a passive quality in virtue of which a thing is said to be acted on or to be incapable of being acted on. Motion in respect of quantity has no name that includes both contraries, but it is called increase or decrease according as one or the other is designated: that is to say motion in the direction of complete magnitude is increase, motion in the contrary [30] direction is decrease. Motion in respect of place has no name either general or particular; but we may designate it by the general name of locomotion, though strictly the term locomotion is applicable to things that change their place only when they have not the power to come to a stand, and to things that do not move themselves locally.35