The Naturalist: Aristotle

RETHINKING ARISTOTLE 'S THEORIES

Aristotle 's theory on natural changes started when he challenged Parmenides ' logic about change . Parmenides said that logically speaking change is not possible at all . He believed that changed is nothing but an appearance pr a representation of something . Alternatives in the world only come in the form of being and non-being . Aristotle 's idea on natural changes challenged Parmenides ' logic by saying that change is achieved not by having a being come from another being , or a non-being coming from another being , or a being coming from

a non-being . Aristotle pointed out that change comes from being-in-act and being-in-potency Aristotle also discussed about substantial change which comes in three types of motions that include a change in quality , in size or quantity and in place . In short , he talked about alteration , diminution and motion as types of changes (Magee , 1999

Another theory of Aristotle called the theory of form branched out from his criticism on Plato 's theory on the same subject . According to Plato there are six types of forms and here are as follows : transcendent pure , archetypes , ultimately real , causes and systematically interconnected forms . Plato argued that a concept needs to be objective in for it to become real Plato also pointed out that whatever it is that is studied in the field of science have form . Because of this he criticized Plato for implying that substance is the only thing that has form . Aristotle challenged this by saying that non-substance can also be forms , like motion , rest , difference and similarities . This is also where Aristotle drew the line between materials and ideas considering the two concepts to be different kinds of forms . God is also an important element in Aristotle 's theory of form because he considers God the one who causes all motions . First motion is needed to get another thing to move . All forms moving in this world would not move without a prime mover , and for him , that one who causes the first motion to make all the other things move is God (Banach , 2006

Because of these ideas , Aristotle 's theories can be easily understood if examples or more substantial explanation is provided . With Aristotle 's theory on natural changes , he simply means that being-in-act simply means action with change currently taking place . Being-in-potency means potential action which may take place from something that is at rest . These two concepts can best be seen with a blank marble which can be turned into a status . The marble serves as the being-in-potency because it has the potential to be a statue . A sculptor can take away the excesses to see the statue that 's already there . The product which comes in the form of a statue , among many other results , is the being-in-act . Change , then , occurs when the being-in-potency becomes being-in-act

It can be easily implied that his main point or argument to support Aristotle 's own theory of form is that , individual objects help in explaining objective...