Abstract
Published in the Festschrift for Josef Klein on the occasion of his 70th birthday (Göttingen, 1967). This essay deals with the potential conception of the continuum, which I tried to sketch out as a problem of physics (i.e., rather than pure mathematics) in an essay entitled “Kontinuität und Möglichkeit” [Continuity and Possibility], written in 1951 (reprinted in Zum Weltbild der Physik [Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1958].
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Notes
- 1.
The English translation of this book: The World View of Physics (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1952), does not contain this essay.—Translator.
- 2.
Reprinted as Chap. 7 in: Michael Drieschner (ed.): Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Physics (Cham et al.: Springer-Verlag, 2014) and originally published in: The Unity of Nature (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1980), pp. 181–222; it was translated by Francis J. Zucker from: Die Einheit der Natur (Munich: Hanser, 1971): III.5.
- 3.
This text was first published in: The Unity of Nature (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. 1980), pp. 346–356, and is a translation by Francis J. Zucker of: Die Einheit der Natur (Munich: Hanser, 1971): IV.4.
- 4.
See Wieland (1962).
- 5.
I have to leave aside in this Note the question as to what Aristotle owed to older philosophical (Pythagorean, Eleatic, Platonic) or mathematical (Pythagorean, Eudoxian) conceptions, or in which points he may even have fallen behind them.
- 6.
The difficulties that M. Schramm (in: Die Bedeutung der Bewegungslehre des Aristoteles für seine beiden Lösungen der zenonischen Paradoxie [Frankfurt: V. Klostermann, 1962]) finds in the idea of the continuum developed in Physics VIII.8 stem only to a limited extent from the manifest imperfections of the proofs offered there; they are due for the most part to Schramm's failure to consider that (a) the mathematics relevant to Aristotle is intuitionist mathematics, and (b) Aristotle is not at all concerned with mathematics here. Cf. the discussion of this chapter in Wieland (op. cit., p. 302), which, though somewhat brief, deals with the essential point.
- 7.
Zeno’s own conception does not concern us here. Only Aristotle’s conception, and our understanding or misunderstanding thereof, is the subject of our discussion.
- 8.
The usual translation of this term is not “underlying reality” (das eigentlich Wirkliche), but “substance”.—Translator.
- 9.
Although it seemed important elsewhere in this chapter to render the German auxiliary verb “zu sein” consistently with “to be”, I have here (and immediately below) substituted “to exist”.—Translator.
- 10.
“Having presence” is the standard English translation of anwesend (in Being and Time).—Translator.
- 11.
On these problems, see G. Böhme: Über die Zeitmodi (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966).
- 12.
For essential instruction on this topic I am indebted to a seminar report by U. Duchrow, and to G. Picht's comments on it.
- 13.
Cf. Picht (1958).
- 14.
I cannot explain here to what extent the theory of relativity, contrary to a wide-spread opinion, has left this fact unaltered. Cf. C. F. v. Weizsäcker: The Unity of Nature (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1980), pp. 101–137; it was translated by Francis J. Zucker from: Die Einheit der Natur (Munich: Hanser, 1971): II.1.
- 15.
See Ross (1936).
- 16.
Already St. Thomas (in: Ph. M. Maggiolo (Ed.): St. Thomae Aquinatis in octo libros physicorum Aristotelis expositio [Turin, 1954], p. 144) offers a corresponding critique of analogous attempts in defining terms (which, however, were not intended as translations from Aristotle): “motus est exitus de potentia in actum non subito"; on which St. Thomas: "qui in definiendo errasse inveniuntur, eo quod in definitione motus posuerunt quaedam quae sunt posteriora motu: exitus enim est quaedam species motus…”.
- 17.
Thus M. Schramm, op. cit., p. 106: “… if what has not yet been actualized were designated by δυνάμει ὄν and what has been actualized by ἐντελεχείᾳ ὄν… , then δυνάμει ὄν and ἐντελέχεια would temporally coincide during the movement, and the resulting definition would be rather apt…”.
- 18.
Cf. also 201 b 31–33: ἥ δὲ κίνησις ἐνέργεια τίς δοκεῖ, ἀτελὴς δέ. αἴτιον δ’ὅτι ἀτελές τὸ δυνατὸν οὗ ἐστιν ἐνέργεα.
- 19.
The older interpreters see clearly on this point. Cf. especially the very accurate interpretation in F. Brentano: On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle, translated by Rolf George (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975).
- 20.
I am permitting myself this example although, according to Metaphysics Θ 1049 a 4, the sperm is ‘not yet’ δυναμει; the distinction involved here will be discussed in the second paragraph below.
- 21.
Cf. Wieland, op. cit, §16. I may perhaps remark that the profit to be derived from Wieland’s book is not diminished if the reader disagrees with the sharp contrast drawn between language analysis and metaphysical profundity (e.g., pp. 139 and 179). I feel that this confrontation does not measure up to Wieland's other insights.
- 22.
“This will be, but that has been”; unlike in English, the past tense in German is constructed with the present tense of the auxiliary verb ‘to be’.—Translator.
- 23.
A Heideggerian term (in Being and Time) meaning “forgottenness of being”.—Translator.
References
Picht, G., 1958: Die Erfahrung der Geschichte (Frankfurt: Klostermann), Section VI.
Ross, W. D. (Ed.), 1936: Aristotle’s Physics (Oxford: Clarendon Press): 359.
Wieland, W., 1962: Die aristotelische Physik (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht), Sect. 17.
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von Weizsäcker, C.F. (2014). Possibility and Movement: A Note on Aristotelian Physics. In: Drieschner, M. (eds) Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Philosophy. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice(), vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03671-7_9
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