PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE EXAM NOTES

ii. How is nature said to be the following:

b. a. principle: It is an intrinsic (inherent) property of motion that enables it to act or be acted on. It is the starting point of the philosophy of nature.

c.  a cause: Nature causes something to move and makes it also to remain at rest when it reaches its proper place

d. a matter: nature is a subject insofar as it is called matter, which underlies each natural thing.

e.  a form: nature is in a subject insofar as it is called form, which is the act of a thing. Nature is form because it is the principle of coming to be in a specie and also the cause of growth of what has come to be. It is that which give act to nature.

f.  Substance: in the sense that it is in the substance that the accidents of a thing inhere.

1. Write short note on the following:

i.   Primematter: this is pure potency. It is the substantial underlying reality of all things, and as such has the potential to become anything. It has no physical appearance, quality or quantity. It has no form and therefore cannot be known. It is that which is in potency for substantial existence. It has no form or privation but subject to them. There is no other matter before it.

ii. Potency: These are those things which can be but are not. It is the ability of a thing to achieve a determinate end.

iii.                       Act: These are those things which already exist. It is the acquisition of the form by matter.

iv.                       Principle:"that from which something comes in any way". Thus something is able to be a "principle" without being a cause, as the starting-point of a motion.

v. Element: it is that material cause for which a thing is primarily composed of, which is in that thing and is not divided by the form.

vi.                       Existence: Whenever the matter takes a form, there is existence. Form is that which gives existence to matter and because form causes existence in act, therefore form is the act. There are two forms of existence: Substantial existence which is “matter from which” existence begins and accidental existence which is “matter in which” accidental changes can take place without affecting the subject. Substance (subject) is the being while predicates are on it. The subject has already a complete existence but can only experience accidental change. Man is a substantial existence while man’s colour is accidental.

vii.                      Generation: this is the movement to existence. It is a change from non-existence to existence and a change to form. It takes place from a non-being which is in potency to being while Corruption is the movement from existence to non-existence. Matter and efficient causes are absolute necessity for generation while conditional necessities are causes after generation i.e. completeness which are end and formal causes

viii.                    There are two forms of generation: Those things that come into being and are called generation simpliciter which is the substantial form and the things come into being as something and are called generation secundum quid which is the accidental form. It is already in being, but the changes that take place in it are accidental changes. There three conditions for generation which are matter, privation and form.

ix.                       Matter: Matter is the primary substratum of each thing, from which it comes to be without qualification, and which persists in the result. Matter is in potency to the thing generated and in a sense its substance, since it enters its constitution or constitution of its substance. So it is here likened to substance.

x. Form is something divine and very good and desirable, for every form is divine since every form is a certain perfection in likeness of the divine. Each thing in act has form. Form is the perfection and good of a potency.

xi.                       Privation is non-being; it is the negation of a form in a subject, and is outside the whole being. Privation relates to evil for it is privation or negation of form-good.

xii.                      Substance:

xiii.                    Fortune is a per accidens cause in those things which come to be in a few instances according to what is proposed for the sake of an end. Only intellectual beings/agents act by fortune.

xiv.                    Rest is a privation of motion, it can be seen to be a contrary

iv. Write short notes on the following:

Ø Infinite: It is an intrinsic property of motion According to Aristotle, Infinite exists as something in potency; it is that which is not to be entirely in act or be in act at once, but can be in act part after part. Infinite is that beyond which there is always something. Thus, like motion, it is partly  in act and partly in potency.

Ø Place is the immobile surface of that which primarily contains a body. It is what contains that of which it is the place while remaining distinct from it. It is the immediate place of a thing i.e. the immediate boundary of a thing. it is the boundary of the containing body, while the contained body is what is apt to be moved in respect to place.

Ø Void: Place is in a space while a thing is in a place. The remaining part of a place in a space not occupied by the thing, is the void. There is still void for compressible things to allow for compression. This is a place in which there is nothing i.e. no object. But for Aristotle, nature abhors vacuum and it is difficult to get void in nature. So, void does not exist.

Ø Space: It is seen as an absolute dimension that does not change. Like the four dimensions of a room. It does not change the dimensions of the body that fills it. In fact, it does not affect the state of the body. it is the generality of places but when marked out, it becomes a place. Some philosophers argue that there can be neither duration nor succession in space.

Ø Time: it is in the numbering of motion according to before and after i.e. as it crosses different points of place. It is a measure of motion, basically, local motion in its duration essentially (hours, days) and also in its being (continuous and numerable). Time  is infinite in potency but finite in being. It is a continuum but discrete in relation to motion and events.

Ø Now: Is applied in terms of ‘now’ in so far as it is not always the same but in as much as it is the conception of ‘before’ and ‘after’ (i.e. events succeeding one another from the past, through the present to future). The ‘now’ is a point in time, an instant, a moment. Time is known through the now. Now is the various points in the difference between the before and the after. The culmination of those instances makes up the time. That is why now seems to be continuous and a boundary of time. E.g. he has now come, he came at 2:00pm, it happened then. In its strict sense, now is the end of the past and a beginning of the future making it continuous. In fact, it measures time and if there is no time, there is no now and vice versa. Now is our most immediate experience of time and once experienced, ceases to be but becomes past. Now distinguishes the past from the present. It points to a moment, an instant.