Change, Agency and the Incomplete in Aristotle

Abstract

Aristotle’s most fundamental distinction between changes and other activities is not that of Metaphysics Θ.6, between end-exclusive and end-inclusive activities, but one implicit in Physics 3.1’s definition of change, between the activity of something incomplete and the activity of something complete. Notably, only the latter distinction can account for Aristotle’s view, in Physics 3.3, that ‘agency’—effecting change in something, e.g. teaching—does not qualify strictly as a change. This distinction informs De Anima 2.5 and imparts unity to Aristotle’s extended treatment of change in Physics 3.1-3.

The Non-kinetic Origins of Aristotle’s Concept of Ἐνέργεια

“…However, and in contrast to Burnyeat, Jaeger believed that the passage could be a later addition by Aristotle himself to a previous version of the Metaphysics, as shown by the use of his famous Doppelklammern). Though the results of his research have been widely accepted by scholars (Witt 2006, Makin 2006, Beere 2009, Berti 2017, Anagnostopoulos 2017, they have been questioned recently by Natali 2013 and Gonzalez 2019, who claim that the passage constitutes an integral part of Θ 6 and of Aristotle's whole argument in Θ. Both authors are in agreement with Ross 1924 II, 253, who believes that the passage presents sound Aristotelian doctrine and that it is correctly placed at Θ 6.…”

Aristotle on the Nature and Politics of Medicine

“…NE I 1, 1094a3-6). See also Anagnostopoulos (2017) and Gonzalez (2019), who question Burnyeat's (2008) thesis in various ways. 13 By contrast, Anagnostopoulos (2000, 267) assumes that for both Plato and Aristotle, "the activities of restoring, improving, or maintaining health constitute the function, end, or goal of medicine" (my emphasis).…”

Practical Knowledge, Equal Standing, and Proper Reliance on Others

“…On the subject criterion, changes are the activities of incomplete beings, individuals or substances themselves (not states or powers of a substance or matter/stuff), while non‐change activities are activities of complete beings, individuals or substances. Changes differ from other activities on the basis of the kind of thing the activity is an activity of; see Anagnostopoulos (2017, p. 171). I am grateful to a referee for pointing me to the debate about the nature of change implicated in the Aristotelian account of moral education.…”