Natural Change

4 Pages 1081 Words

Natural Change



Aristotle’s Physics is a brilliant collection of concepts dealing with natural

science. It explains that there are certain “principles of nature”. With this, Aristotle also

gives in-depth definitions and explanations of what a natural object is and how it changes.


Aristotle classifies a natural object as an object that has a principle of change

within itself. A natural change is the process a natural object goes through to achieve its

internal purpose. An example of a natural object is a bird. Like all natural objects, a bird

continuously changes until it reaches its goal, or internal purpose. In this case, it’s internal

purpose is to grow old and die.


The consumption and digestion of food is an example of a natural change that a

bird goes through during its quest to fulfill its internal purpose . This is a natural change

because it allows the bird to continue its process of change. When a bird eats, it begins

the process. The food is digested and will give the bird essential nutrients that it needs to

grow.


Aristotle states that there are four causes that explain what a natural object is, how

it is possible for it to fulfill its internal purpose, and how it maintains its identity

throughout the continuous change. These causes are the material cause, formal cause,

efficiency cause, and the final cause.


The first cause is the material cause. This cause explains that matter is made out

of the same matter that it came from. For example, when a bird is born it will always have

the same physical characteristics as the birds that reproduced it. It is incapable of being

born with characteristics that aren’t the characteristics of the parents.


The second cause is the formal cause. This explains that the species, type, or kind

of natural object determines what the object is and the pattern it evolves throu...