Ancient PhilosophyAristole's Case for Cause andMotion
...e, and hence either because of some or because of the first mover. " It is necessary, here, to explain what Aristotle called potentiality and actuality. Potentiality is the faculty something has, and actuality is the realization of that faculty. One has the ability to be musical; that is, one has the potential to be musical. If one decides to be musical then one has actualized their potentiality; that is, one has caused Themselves to become musical. So then when Aristotle says ‘the second mover operates in one way because of itself,' it means the second mover has acted upon its potential and actualized it. For Aristotle things do not simply act on their potential because of nothing, there has to be a cause of the actualization, thus, when he said "...The, then must actually operate in one way because of itself, and in another way because of something else." He meant that thing A has the potential to move by itself, but it does not simply move for absolutely no reason, thus, A moves because of its potential, and because of cause B. Aristotle said "It is also evident...by saying that motion is in the thing moved. For it is actuality of the thing moved, brought about by the agency of the mover." The last part of Aristotle's statement, "and hence either because of some or because of the first mover,"Means that the cause of A moving is A's potential and B is either a third mover or is a first mover C. The best way to summarize the statement made above by Aristotle is to use the example of billiard balls. Imagine there are 4 billiard balls labeled A, B, C, and D. Ball B has the potential to move but needs a reason to move. Ball C moves and caused ball B to move, thus, Ball B is caused to move by its potential and by ball C. Ball C also has the potential to move, but needs a reason. The reason ball C moved is because ball C has the potential to move, and was caused to actualize its potential by ball D, thus, ball B moves because of ball C and ball C moved because of ball D and ball D moves because of ball A. This example would work if there were millions, or even infinite numbers of billiard balls on the table. The cause of all the balls movement can be traced back through the empirical knowledge of cause and effect. It is also possible that all the balls on the table move in a cyclical motion. Ball B may bounce around hitting ball A, which hits ball D and so on. So the whole chain of causation becomes a cyclical motion each causing the other to move and indirectly causes its own motion. The last part of Aristotle's statement also mentions a first or prime mover. If one were to place 4 billiard balls on the table, they would simply sit there and do nothing, unless something moved them, or there was a prime mover of them. Even if they each ball caused the other to move, and eventually caused its own movement indirectly, there must have been something there to set at least one ball in motion. For Aristotle the same is true of the universe, there can be no movement, circular or otherwise, unless there is a prime mover. The prime mover is also not permitted motion. If the prime mover had motion, then there would have to be a cause of its motion, and thus, it would no longer be a first/prime mover. So for Aristotle the prime mover is actuality, without potentiality. The prime mover has no potential at all, it is simply actual. If the prime mover did have potential then it would have to be acted upon to realize its potential and would, thus, no longer be a prime mover because something would have to act upon it. This account of cause and effect is at best problematic and troublesome. Aristotle has based all his knowledge on empirical evidence. Empirical evidence is not always perfect, and it is always possible to overlook something. Aristotle also did not show what else causation could be, nor did he consider that what he was attempting to explain may not be within our capabilities to understand. Aristotle based all his evidence for his proof of causation on the empirical world around him. Human perception is often mistaken, or overlooks things. The human notion of causation itself is problematic. The only reason we know that C causes B to move is the observance of the 2 together. We base all our knowledge of causation on the fact that when B moves, C is usually around, thus, we infer C caused B to move, but we do not exactly know that for sure. If one day C was around, but B didn't move we would assume it to be a fluke. If it happened regularly that B no longer moved when C was around, then we would assume that we were mistaken, and would begin to look for another cause to observe. The only reason Aristotle knows that something is in motion is because he has seen it in motion before; he offers no other reason for cause and effect other than the fact it has happened in the past. Aristotle would most likely reply that there is no other way to know this. He would be correct, but the fact that there is no other way to know causation, does not prove there is a prime mover. It may be that causation is infinite as far as our understanding can go. We, as humans, may be fully incapable of knowing what causation really entails, or how it can be traced back. Our faculties may not have the ability to know anything other than infinite causation. We, as humans, may not have the potential to know truly, the chain of causation. If we do not have the potential, then we can never truly actualize the knowledge of causation. If we do not have the potential to truly know causation, then Aristotle's prime mover is nothing mo...