Aristotle on Metaphysics(2004) - Bibotu.com

THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF CHANGE: GOD 269the cause of rational, intelligible order and change in the universe—anorder which, for <strong>Aristotle</strong>, is visibly manifest above all in the orderly,uniform motion of the heavenly bodies.3The ultimate cause of change, and the outermostheaven<strong>Aristotle</strong> distinguishes between two kinds of changing things: thosechanging things that come to be and cease to be; and those changingthings that are everlasting (see XII. 6,1071 b 3–4; also XII. 1, 1069 a 30–31):The former includes the plants and animals around us, which evidentlyare generated and destroyed in the recurring cycle of their individual lives.It also includes ourselves, or at any rate part of ourselves. For <strong>Aristotle</strong>argues that a part of ourselves, namely, our intellect, or certainly part ofour intellect, is everlasting (see De Anima III. 4–5; also Metaphysics XII. 3,1070 a 24–26). But the latter comprises the planets and stars that we see inthe sky, and indeed the whole universe, which he argues are everlasting,i.e. they were never created and will never cease to be. Here it is worthemphasizing his view that the universe is everlasting, i.e. infinite in bothdirections in time. For it is above all the most comprehensive change of theuniverse, i.e. the motion of the outermost heaven, that the ultimate causeof change is introduced to explain and cause. This is in itself striking, andit shows that <strong>Aristotle</strong>’s ultimate cause of change is not introduced tocreate the universe, or to set it in motion. For the universe, he argues, isuncreated and it was always in motion, indeed in the orderly, uniformmotion that is manifest to us even now as we observe the heavens. (Wewill consider his argument later in §4 of this chapter.)So <strong>Aristotle</strong> argues that there is a progression or ascent from noneverlastingchanging things, which are most subject to change, since theycome to be and cease to be; to everlasting changing things, which are lesssubject to change; to everlasting changeless things, which are not at allsubject to change, namely, the ultimate cause of change (see 1071 b 3f.).