Aristotle’s Four Causes and Physics: Motion, Change, and Being
Aristotle’s Four Causes
For something to move from potential to actual, an external cause is needed. Cold water doesn’t heat itself, nor do bricks assemble into a building without intervention. This illustrates the principle: “everything that moves is moved by another.” The agent causing this change from potential to actual is the efficient cause. Every efficient cause shapes a subject, like Michelangelo’s Moses from marble, serving a specific purpose. Material and formal causes are intrinsic to the effect, while efficient and final causes are extrinsic.
Aristotle considers the final cause first in intention. An archer aims at the target before releasing the arrow. The final cause must be intelligent, working with foresight, and directing means towards a future goal. This peculiarity leads Aristotle to affirm the immateriality of human intelligence.
Aristotelian Physics
Aristotle defined physics as the study of beings with real existence and motion. He critiqued Parmenides’ static view, explaining change with an example: a stone is not a tree, and a seed is not a tree, but they differ. A stone cannot become a tree, while a seed can. Thus, there are two types of non-being: absolute non-being (cannot be) and relative non-being (can be). Change is the passage from potential to actual.
Classes of Movement
Aristotle identified two classes of movement:
- Substantial change: the creation or destruction of a substance.
- Accidental change: modifications in non-essential aspects of a substance without altering its core. This includes qualitative, quantitative, and local changes.
Natural vs. Violent Movement
Aristotle distinguishes between natural and violent movement. Natural movement occurs when a body moves to its natural place. For example, heavy bodies fall towards the Earth’s center, while light bodies rise towards the lunar region. Violent movement is not natural.
Elements Involved in Change
Any change involves something that remains, something that is lost, and something that appears. In accidental change, a substance loses some incidental characters to acquire others. Substantial change, however, involves the creation or destruction of a substance. The underlying substrate, which Aristotle calls primary matter, has these characteristics:
- It is undetermined.
- It is not a particular being.
- It is a being in potential.
- It takes on a form or structure, generating a substance.