Volume II (2015) Identity Through Change in Aristotle: How Hylomorphism Solved the Parmenidean Puzzle Alejandro Naranjo Cornell University Abstract Influential commentators have argued that Aristotle’s discussions regarding change are inconsistent. Against this thesis, the present paper looks at various discussions concerning change in Aristotle’s texts in order to demonstrate that a feature that unifies them does in fact exist. I argue that this unifying feature is that the accidental form of a substance changes while its essential form and matter remain constant. Thus, I claim that this gives us reason to believe that Aristotle always held a hylomorphic theory of substance, i.e., the theory that substances are a complex of matter and form. Moreover, I contend that Aristotle uses this unifying feature to solve the puzzle that Parmenides raised with his argument for the impossibility of change without having to postulate the existence of Platonic Forms. I. Introduction Throughout his texts, Aristotle gives several accounts of change that challenge the opinions of previous philosophers such as Plato, Parmenides, and Heraclitus and his followers, to name a few. Significantly, in Physics I he rejects Plato’s explanation of change through the Forms and claims to have solved the puzzle that Parmenides posed with his argument regarding the impossibility of change. However, there are many other passages in which Aristotle explicitly analyses change in (at least) one of what he takes to be its four possible forms: alteration, growth, locomotion, and coming-to-be or passing-away. It is far from clear that his views on change remained the same through all of his discussions. In fact, many commentators charge Aristotle with inconsistency in this matter. For example, Daniel Graham claims that Aristotle’s ideas on substantiality change too radically from text to text to provide a unique Aristotelian Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) account of change.1 In the present essay, I argue contra these commentators that there is a unique feature that all of these accounts of change share and that this feature is what constitutes Aristotle’s main innovation with respect to the philosophers that preceded him. In particular, I discuss several analyses that Aristotle presents concerning growth with the purpose of confirming the presence of this unifying feature. II. Aristotle’s notion of substantiality: What Remains Constant Through Change. First, we must introduce Aristotle’s views on substantiality since his innovations on change depend on them. In the Categories, Aristotle defines substances2 in the following way: “a substance … is that which is neither said of a subject nor in a subject” (2a11), where ‘P’ is said of ‘x’ just in case ‘P’ is predicated of ‘x’ (e.g., the musical is said of man just in case he is musical); and ‘y’ is in a subject ‘x’ just in case ‘y’ is not a part of ‘x’ but the existence of ‘y’ depends on the existence of ‘x’ (1a21).3 He then argues that all other things, in a broad sense of the term that includes all other nine categories (quantity, relatives, etc.), are said of substances or are in them as subjects (2a35). Since substances are fundamental with respect to predication, they are the basic building blocks of reality on which everything supervenes. As he explains: if “substances did not exist it would be impossible for any of the other things to exist” (2b5). In particular, Aristotle claims that individual objects4 are substances, “e.g. the individual man or the individual horse” (2a15). Aristotle argues that any substance is able to receive contraries at different times while preserving its numerical identity, e.g., the same individual man is said to be not-musical at one time and musical at another time. Moreover, it is only substances that have this capacity: “in no [case other than substance] could one bring forward anything, numerically one, which is able to receive contraries” (4a10). Now, Aristotle understands change as receiving different predicates at 1 Daniel Graham, Aristotle’s Two Systems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). In this paper, ‘substance’ is short for ‘primary substance’, since we will not discuss Aristotle’s notion of secondary substances. 3 All translations are taken from The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). 4 The notion of individuality at play is outside of the scope of this paper, but maybe logical independence will suffice, i.e., a pack of wolves does not qualify as a substance, since its existence logically depends on the existence of at least two of the individual wolves (unless one trivially counts a lonely wolf as a pack). 2 12 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) different times. This explains why he uses both notions interchangeably. E.g., “what has become cold instead of hot, or dark instead of pale, or good instead of bad, has changed” (4a31). More formally, an object changes if and only if at some time the set of predicates that are said of the object is different from the set of predicates that are said of it at another time. Hence, we have that only substances can be the subject of any change and be numerically one and the same through it. Here, by the subject of change I mean what undergoes change. I will use the term agent of change to refer to the cause of the change. However, we cannot say without qualification that only substances can be the subject of change and remain numerically identical through it. Some will object that “statements and beliefs are like this. For the same statement seems to be both true and false” (4a23), and we do not want to count statements and beliefs as substances. With this, the opponent means that, e.g., the statement ‘it is raining in Ithaca’ is the same throughout the year, but its truth-value changes. It is true when it is in fact raining in Ithaca, and it is false otherwise. At this point, Aristotle argues that substances remain identical through change by themselves, while statements do not. In our example, the truth-value of our statement changes because the actual things the statement refers to have changed. In contrast, the not-musical man becomes musical by performing an activity himself—by playing an instrument, or learning how to play one. In Aristotle’s words, “in the case of substances it is by themselves changing that they are able to receive contraries […]. Statements and beliefs, on the other hand, themselves remain completely unchangeable in every way” (4a30). For short, I will say that a thing has changeability if and only if it is the subject of any change through itself and it remains numerically identical through the change. So far, Aristotle has shown that an object is a substance if and only if it has changeability. Still, we may ask: what exactly in substances has changeability? It cannot be that the entire substance has changeability since surely in a change in itself something must not remain one and the same: otherwise no change would have occurred. Answering this question and tracing the answer through Aristotle’s texts will occupy us the rest of this paper. A crucial piece to this puzzle appears in On the Soul II.1. There, Aristotle states: “substance is a kind of what is, and that in several senses: in the sense of matter or that which in itself is not a this, and in the sense of form and essence, which is that precisely in virtue of which a thing is called a this, and thirdly 13 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) in the sense of that which is compounded of both” (412a6). With this statement, he means that for an object to be a substance it must have form—an immaterial essence which is often the purpose or final cause of the object—and matter that is suited to fulfill the form. E.g., for an object to be an eye, it must have the power of sight (which is the essence of the eye), and it must have matter that enables it to see. Accordingly, he claims that “when seeing is removed the eye is no longer an eye, except in name” (412b20). In the literature, Aristotle’s theory of the two-fold nature of substances is called hylomorphism. Now that we have established that substances have changeability and are hylomorphic, we must ask: is it the form or the matter of a substance that has changeability? Or is it both? Already in the previous quotation we see that a necessary condition of any change in which the substance survives is that its essential form must survive as well, e.g., what makes the eye the thing it is must necessarily remain fixed through the change. Hence the substance changes as a compound of its matter and its accidental form. By accidental form I mean merely its account but not its essence, i.e., the set of predicates that are said of the substance but that the substance could lose without thereby ceasing to be the substance it is. For now I will state that this is a main feature which is shared by all of Aristotle’s accounts of change, and, after discussing Plato as an important target of this feature, I will prove that it is indeed present in several of the important passages concerning change. For this paper, therefore, I will assume the following definition of “Identity Through Change”: While the substance, as both its accidental form and its matter, is the subject in every change in the substance, only its essential form remains one and the same through the change. III. The Parmenidean Puzzle and Plato’s solution. Historically, Aristotle’s immediate reason to uphold Identity Through Change was to solve a puzzle that Parmenides had raised with his argument for the impossibility of change without having to postulate the existence of Platonic Forms. In order to understand this statement, we introduce Aristotle’s reconstruction of Parmenides’ argument: suppose that something comes to be, i.e., changes. Then, it must do so either from what is or from what is not, both of which are impossible. For what is cannot come to be (because it is already), and from what is not nothing 14 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) could have come to be (because something must be underlying) (191a29).5 Plato thought he could solve this puzzle, as is evident from the fact that he devotes an entire dialogue—the Parmenides—giving replies to the possible responses of the Parmenideans against his theory of Forms. I proceed to present Plato’s account of change by the Forms in order to highlight the reasons that Aristotle champions against it. In Phaedo, Plato’s Socrates narrates how, during his youth, he defended explanations of growth that depended on the addition of similars to similars. As he narrates, “I thought before that it was obvious to anybody that men grew through eating and drinking, for food adds flesh to flesh and bones to bones, and in the same way appropriate parts were added to all other parts of the body” (96c5). However, Socrates became disenchanted with this theory and instead came to prefer an explanation of growth in terms of his Forms, i.e., non-material, abstract and universal entities such as the Beautiful, itself by itself, the Good and the Great, etc. (100b4). If an object ‘x’ is said to be ‘F’, where ‘F’ is a Form, it is because the ‘F’ is in ‘x’ or, in Plato’s own words, “if there is anything beautiful besides the Beautiful itself, it is beautiful for no other reason than that it shares in that Beautiful” (100c2). Accordingly, every man grows because the Tallness in him advances and the Shortness in him recedes, and our saying that he is taller than another man has to be causally explained by comparing their participation in Tallness (102c1). As Plato explains, Not only Tallness itself is never willing to be tall and short at the same time, but also that the tallness in us will never admit the short or be overcome, but one of two things happens: either it flees and retreats whenever its opposite, the short, approaches, or it is destroyed [in us] by its approach. (102d5) Two features of the theory of Forms are particularly relevant to our discussion. First, the Forms in us do not admit contraries, as is already evident in the last quotation. In fact, it is not only that each Form in us does not admit contraries, but also in its own independent existence: “the opposite itself could never become opposite to itself, neither that in us nor that in nature” 5 All translations of Plato are taken from Plato: The Complete Works, ed. John Cooper (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997). 15 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) (103b2). Thus, Plato’s solution to Parmenides’ argument is the existence of eternal immaterial forms that do not come to be but whose advance or retreat from objects makes them come to be. Second, Plato is also interested in identity through change. He reports that before Socrates abandoned natural science, he held three views: that the man who grows is the subject of change; that he is one and the same through the growth, and that the addition of similars to similars is the agent of change. Thus he states: “the man grew from an earlier small bulk to a large bulk later, and so a small man became big” (96d3). Later, he corrected this view. As we have seen, the Forms in us are the agents of change: the man is said to have changed in virtue of his participation in the Forms, but it is the advance or recession of them that causes the change. However, the subject of change—the man—is still one and the same through the change according to Plato: “[Tallness] is not willing to endure and admit shortness and be other than it was, whereas I admit and endure shortness and still remain the same person and am this short man” (102e3). In general, for Plato the essence of matter is to be the subject of change—i.e. to receive contraries—precisely because matter maintains its numerical identity through the change. In the Timaeus, he considers the example of a portion of gold that is molded in different shapes. He argues that when asked what is the portion of gold—i.e., what is the subject of the change in shape—one’s safest bet is to say that it is gold, since that is what remains constant through every reshaping (50b1). Accordingly, he states that the nature of matter is “to be available for anything to make its impression upon” and that matter is “modified, shaped, and reshaped by the things that enter it” (50c1). This is in direct contradiction with Identity Through Change. Where Plato says that the agent is the subject of change and what is constant through it, Aristotle says that the subject is matter and accidental form and that what is constant is essential form. Hence, although Aristotle also desires to solve the puzzle that Parmenides has posed, he disagrees with Plato because his views on predication, substantiality, and causation are mistaken. IV. Observances of Identity Through Change in Aristotle’s texts. We now turn to several of Aristotle’s discussions concerning change in order that it may become clear both that Identity Through Change holds up through Aristotle’s intellectual development and so that we can understand some of the main arguments that result from it. In On Generation 16 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) and Corruption I.4, Aristotle distinguishes between different types of change, including alteration, growth and diminution, and coming-to-be and passing-away: When the change from contrary to contrary is in quantity, it is growth and diminution; … when it is in property, i.e., in quality, it is alteration; but when nothing persists of which the resultant is a property … it is coming-to-be, and the converse is passing-away” (319b32). Here, we only discuss the case of growth6. In On Generation and Corruption I.5, Aristotle argues that any account of growth must preserve three commonsense suppositions, namely that “any and every part of the growing magnitude is made bigger … by the accession of something; and thirdly in such a way that the growing thing is preserved and persists” (321a17)7. Thus, Aristotle thinks that a satisfactory account of growth is one in which the subject of growth remains one and the same through the change, at least in one sense. Note that this analysis of growth is meant to count against Plato’s theory of growth via the Forms, since the Forms do not conform to two of these three methodological requirements. For Plato, neither the parts of the flesh nor of the Forms are made bigger; growth does not occur by the accession of anything. Now, since the subject of growth is available to receive contraries in that at least each and every one of its parts has grown in magnitude, then surely it is not exactly the same as it was before the change. If the Forms are not the subject of growth, what that which grows? I.e., “Is it that to which something is added? If, e.g., a man grows in his shin, is it the shin which is greater—but not that whereby he grows, viz. not the food? Then why have not both grown?” (321a30). Note that this is a direct response to Plato’s discussion in Phaedo. In particular, it criticizes Plato’s assertion that natural science is unable to determine which thing has grown when two things are put together (96e5). Aristotle’s solution to this puzzle is developed in two steps: one for the non-homoeomerous parts of the object, and one for its homoeomerous parts. For Aristotle, an object is homoeomerous if and only if any part of it is of the same type as the 6 A complete treatment of the subject would include alteration, locomotion and even, possibly, coming-to-be, since in Physics I.8 Aristotle argues that even things that come-to-be simpliciter come-to-be from some underlying thing (190b2). For considerations regarding space, these further topics are left undiscussed. 7 Aristotle does not only postulate these three requirements: he has arguments for upholding them. While interesting in our own right, for our purposes it suffices to state his results. 17 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) whole. For instance, “any part of water is water” (328a11). Now, first, a non-homoeomerous object grows because each of its homoeomerous parts (which necessarily exist) grows (321b18). E.g., the hand, which is comprised of parts of flesh and parts of bone, grows precisely because the parts of bone and flesh grow. In turn, these homoeomeries, which have “a twofold nature; for the form as well as the matter is called flesh or bone” (321b20), grow in form. Matter cannot account for their change since, according to Aristotle, growth in terms of matter is “like what happens when a man measures water with the same measure; for what comes-to-be is always different. And it is in this sense that the matter of the flesh grows, some flowing out and some flowing in” (321b23). The idea in this passage is that when a material body grows, it not only acquires matter but also disposes of it in what could (at least in principle) be a complete way. Therefore, if one wants the object’s identity to be preserved thorough growth, it should not depend on the integrity of its material constitution, e.g., the Ship of Theseus, whose parts are exchanged at sea until its original constitution has been entirely replaced. Now, using the three requirements of any account of growth that Aristotle has introduced, he concludes that bodies grow because their homoeomerous parts grow in form. In particular, the first and second requirements are crucial: “that every part should grow—and grow by the accession of something—is possible in respect to form, but not in respect to matter” (321b22). Possibly, that such parts grow in form means that one’s account of every homoeomerous part acquires more predicates, and thus the body acquires more properties. As evidence for this reading, note that Aristotle points out that a mixture of water and wine is said to be the growth of wine (and not water) if the resulting mixture “acts as wine” (321a34)—i.e., certain predicates said of the wine essentially are also said of the mixture, and hence the essential form of the wine is preserved. Presumably, however, the mixture will acquire certain predicates that are said of water: it will lose some of its redness, etc. Therefore the subject of growth is not only the matter comprising the wine, but also its accidental form. Thus, this is a direct observance of our principle of Identity Through Change. Aristotle takes up the matter of growth again in On the Soul II.4, where he seeks a definition of the nutritive soul, i.e., the soul responsible in natural beings for their reproduction and growth. Here, Aristotle understands the soul of a body as the cause or source of the body in 18 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) three senses: “it is the source of movement, it is the end, it is [its] essence” (415b9). For him, reproduction and growth are due to a psychic power instead of a mere physical interaction between elements. Thus he criticizes those who say that “fire [is] the cause of nutrition and growth” (416a11) on the grounds that such growth would be boundless, since it is the nature of fire to burn as long as it is fueled. Rather, living beings have a natural size that is best suited for the fulfillment of their essence whose existence can only be understood in the presence of a psychical power. As Aristotle explains, “limit or ratio are marks of soul but not of fire, and belong to the side of account rather than that of matter” (416a17). Aristotle proceeds by criticizing the accounts of previous philosophers concerning nutrition. He states: “one set of thinkers assert that like is fed, as well as increased in amount, by like. Another set … maintains the reverse, viz. that what feeds and what is fed are contrary to one another” (416a29). Aristotle dismisses these theories because they fail to make a distinction between digested and undigested matter. I.e., the food that a living being ingests is a contrary to it, since it is not comprised of the same elements. However, in digestion, the body turns the food into an aggregate of elements like those of its organs so it can be assimilated. As Aristotle explains, “taking food in the sense of undigested matter, it is the contrary that is fed by it; taking it as digested it is like what is fed by it” (416b6). Note that this is an attempt to understand the growth of living beings by feeding, and thus Aristotle approaches this problem with the same methodological approach as in On Generation and Corruption I.5. Accordingly, he points out that in nutrition there must be a subject of growth that is constant through the change—that which is fed—and that food has the power to increase the bulk of this subject in magnitude by the accession of like to like. Nonetheless, there is a further complication in the case of living beings. Aristotle states: “nothing except what is alive can be fed” (416b10). By this, he means that food not only has the power to increase the bulk of an object in magnitude (as in the case of growth in general), but also to preserve the life of the being that feeds on it just in case it is living (416b14). This point is particularly relevant to our discussion, since it helps us identify the living being—as both form and matter—with the subject of nutrition: “what is fed is the besouled body and just because it has soul in it” (416b10). Accordingly, Aristotle analyses the process of nutrition into three 19 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) factors: “what is fed, that wherewith it is fed, and what does the feeding” (416b20), or, in our terminology, the subject of change, the agent of change, and what remains constant through the change. Respectively, what feeds is the nutritive soul, what is fed is the besouled body, and that wherewith it is fed is the food (416b23). Since the nutritive soul is part of the end and essence of the living being, we have that what remains constant through nutrition is the essential form. Similarly, the subject of change is the living being considered both in its form and its matter. Hence, we have here another observance of Identity Through Change. Relatedly, in Politics III.3, Aristotle discusses how pluralities remain constant through change, by considering the specific example of the state, which is comprised of citizens. In his words: “shall we say that while the race of inhabitants remains the same, the city is also the same, although the citizens are always dying and being born, as we call rivers and fountains the same, although the water is flowing away and more coming?” (1276a35). Note that in this example not only the citizens have changed, but also the accidental form of the state, i.e., when describing the state we could include the fact that its citizens have changed in number and race, etc. Nonetheless, Aristotle argues that the essential form of the state—its political organization as it is legislated in a constitution—and not its material composition—how many and what race of citizens are counted as part of the state—is constant through the change. This way, the undesirable result that the state changes if all of its original inhabitants have died, even if every inhabitant in the current state observes the same constitution and ideals, is avoided. Thus, “since the state is a partnership, and is a partnership of citizens in a constitution, when the form of the government changes, and becomes different, then it may be supposed that the state is no longer the same” (1276a35) and, more generally “we speak of every union or composition of elements as different when the form of their composition alters” (1276b6). This is similar to our findings in On Generation and Corruption I.5, because the state, in its accidental form and material composition, is the subject of the change, and its essential form is one and the same through the change. Hence this is another case of Identity Through Change. Some commentators such as Graham argue that Aristotle’s ideas of substantiality change too drastically from his earlier texts to his latter ones to present any unifying theory of change. Graham contends that in earlier texts Aristotle spouses a theory, S1, of atomic substantialism 20 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) according to which “the basic entities are indivisible substances which fall under natural kinds” and later on a theory, S2, of hylomorphic substantialism according to which “substances are complexes of form and matter” (Graham 1987). Furthermore, in Aristotle’s Two Systems he argues S1 and S2 are incommensurable, i.e., both systems commit Aristotle to different metaphysical ideas that cannot be simultaneously obtained. However, we have shown that the principle Identity Through Change remains constant throughout Aristotle’s texts: from the Categories to the Politics, which are widely recognized as early and later texts, respectively. Aristotle’s unfaltering dedication to this principle—which depends on a hylomorphic theory of substance—provides us with reasons to believe that Aristotle favored hylomorphism over atomism. Moreover, as Michael J. Loux contends, Aristotle always held that a substance is a type of “what is” that can bear properties and which has a telos or purpose.8 It seems unlikely that Aristotle thought that atoms could be the bearers of complex properties such as being musical or that atoms had the telos of seeing, but these are paradigmatic examples of what we want from an Aristotelian substance. Thus, I argue that Graham is mistaken in believing that Aristotle held S1, and thereby can claim that Aristotle’s discussions of change are consistent and based on a hylomorphic theory of substances. V. Conclusion: How Identity Through Change solves the Parmenidean Puzzle. I have presented the principle of Identity Through Change as a constant of Aristotle’s account of growth. Similar analyses can be made concerning alternation and locomotion. However, we have a more pressing issue at hand. I have claimed that Aristotle can solve Parmenides’ puzzle without having to resort to using Platonic Forms. How then does Aristotle use Identity Through Change to avoid the Parmenidean threat? The answer to this question can be found in Physics I, where Aristotle introduces a more general account for change. In chapter 7, he argues that the principles of change, i.e., the conditions necessary for change to happen, are not two contraries— as in Plato’s account, which explained change in terms of a Form and its contrary—but rather, two contraries plus an underlying subject of change (190b35). E.g., when the not-musical man becomes musical, the musical and the unmusical are the two contraries, and the man is the 8 Michael Loux, “Substances, Coincidentals and Aristotle’s Constituent Ontology,” in Oxford Handbook of Aristotle, ed. Christopher Shields (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 372-399. 21 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) subject of change (190b31). Aristotle requires the third principle because “it is impossible for the contraries to be acted on by each other” (190b32), e.g., the not-musical cannot act on the musical, since by Plato’s own terms each Form recedes when its contrary approaches. This way, by assuming that there is change, Aristotle proves that there must always be an underlying subject (190b3)—the third principle. Schematically, this substance ‘x’, which is numerically identical, is able to receive two contraries ‘F’ and ‘G’ at different times. Hence, its account changes by the modification of its matter, in accordance with Identity Through Change. As Aristotle explains, The subject is one numerically, though it is two in form. (For there is the man, the gold— in general, the countable matter; for it is more of the nature of a ‘this’, and what comes to be does not come from it accidentally; the privation, one the other hand, and the contrariety are accidental) (190b24). By arguing for the existence of these bearers of predicates, Aristotle can explain how they come to be “from what is not”. Namely, they come to be from what is not accidentally, i.e., from the negation of a predicate ‘F’, ‘F’ can come to be in a substance ‘x’, as in the non-musical man that becomes musical. This is what he means when he states that “nothing can be said without qualification to come from what is not. But nevertheless we maintain that a thing may come to be from what is not in a qualified sense, i.e., accidentally” (191b14). Thus, Aristotle has succeeded in proving Parmenides wrong, without having to recur to Plato’s solution. For Aristotle, the Forms, which cannot affect one another, cannot be the agents of change. The subject of change cannot be only matter, since our account of the changing substance has also been modified; nor need matter be constant through the change, as we have seen in On Generation and Corruption. Most importantly, Plato fails to notice that what is constant through the change is the essential account of substances: their end or purpose. Aristotle’s ideas concerning predication and substantiality have survived to this day in many ways. E.g., his arguments for the existence of fundamental substances on which predication and truth inhere have motivated our logical notions of predicates and individual-constants. However, I take it that what is most important for Aristotle concerning Identity Through Change is the 22 Alejandro Naranjo/Volume II (2015) emphasis it places on the final essence of substances. For him, that things are capable of coming to be is ultimately explained only by understanding nature teleologically. 23