Aristotelian chemistry: A prelude to Duhemian metaphysics

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A

Volumn 27, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 251-269

  Needham, Paul ^a  

^a STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

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EID: 0030160861     PISSN: 00393681     EISSN: 18792510     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/0039-3681(95)00047-X     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. 1 Harold H. Joachim, 'Aristotle's Conception of Chemical Combination', Journal of Philology 29 (1904), 72-86.
2. 2 e.g. J. E. Bolzan, 'Chemical Combination According to Aristotle', Ambix 23 (1976), 134-144, and references cited therein.
3. 3 Pierre Duhem, Le mixte et la combinaison chimique: Essai sur l'évolution d'une idée (Paris: C. Naud, 1902; reprinted Paris: Fayard, 1985). Originally published as 'La notion de mixte: Essai historique et critique', Revue de Philosophie 1 (1900), 69-99, 167-197, 331-357, 430-467, 730-745.
4. 3 Pierre Duhem, Le mixte et la combinaison chimique: Essai sur l'évolution d'une idée (Paris: C. Naud, 1902; reprinted Paris: Fayard, 1985). Originally published as 'La notion de mixte: Essai historique et critique', Revue de Philosophie 1 (1900), 69-99, 167-197, 331-357, 430-467, 730-745.
5. 4 Op. cit., note 1, pp. 74-75.
6. 5 Op. cit., note 3, p. 12.
7. 6 Peter Röper, 'Semantics for Mass Terms With Quantifiers', Nous 17 (1983), 251-265, calls this the distributive reference condition and defines a homogeneous predicate as one which satisfies, in addition, a cumulative reference condition (φ(π) ∧ φ(ρ)) ⊃ φ(π∪ρ).
8. 7 Aristotle, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away, translated by E. S. Forster (Loeb Classical Library, London: Heinemann, 1955), I. 10.
9. 8 Op. cit., note 1, p. 74.
10. 9 Op. cit., note 1, p. 75.
11. 10 Cf. Metaphysics, VIII.5: 'There is ... a certain problem over why it is that wine is not the matter of vinegar, nor is it potentially vinegar, even though vinegar comes from it; ... it is not the wine but the water that is the matter of the vinegar.... All things that change into one another ... must revert to their matter ... vinegar first turns to water and from there becomes wine', translated by David Bostock, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Books Z and H (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). Bostock suggests there is an unintended temporal implication here, and continues 'There is no more need for an intermediate stage here (if wine is to come from vinegar) than there was in the change from wine to vinegar. All that needs to be insisted upon is that neither is made of the other though there is a common matter that both are made of' (p. 278). It is argued in the paper that mixts cannot be said to have water as a component element if this does not mean that the mixt can come from, or can become, water. As for Aristotle's initial problem in this passage, perhaps wine is not potentially vinegar because this possibility is not encompassed by what Sarah Waterlow describes as 'the power of the natural substance to attain structure ... there (being) only one type of change that depends on the specific structure, namely that which results in the latter's full development. Aristotle ... identifies the behaviour that manifests substantial nature with a mere sub-class of all behavings of which the substance in question is physically capable', Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's Physics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 36-37.
12. 10 Cf. Metaphysics, VIII.5: 'There is ... a certain problem over why it is that wine is not the matter of vinegar, nor is it potentially vinegar, even though vinegar comes from it; ... it is not the wine but the water that is the matter of the vinegar.... All things that change into one another ... must revert to their matter ... vinegar first turns to water and from there becomes wine', translated by David Bostock, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Books Z and H (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). Bostock suggests there is an unintended temporal implication here, and continues 'There is no more need for an intermediate stage here (if wine is to come from vinegar) than there was in the change from wine to vinegar. All that needs to be insisted upon is that neither is made of the other though there is a common matter that both are made of' (p. 278). It is argued in the paper that mixts cannot be said to have water as a component element if this does not mean that the mixt can come from, or can become, water. As for Aristotle's initial problem in this passage, perhaps wine is not potentially vinegar because this possibility is not encompassed by what Sarah Waterlow describes as 'the power of the natural substance to attain structure ... there (being) only one type of change that depends on the specific structure, namely that which results in the latter's full development. Aristotle ... identifies the behaviour that manifests substantial nature with a mere sub-class of all behavings of which the substance in question is physically capable', Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's Physics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 36-37.
13. 10 Cf. Metaphysics, VIII.5: 'There is ... a certain problem over why it is that wine is not the matter of vinegar, nor is it potentially vinegar, even though vinegar comes from it; ... it is not the wine but the water that is the matter of the vinegar.... All things that change into one another ... must revert to their matter ... vinegar first turns to water and from there becomes wine', translated by David Bostock, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Books Z and H (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). Bostock suggests there is an unintended temporal implication here, and continues 'There is no more need for an intermediate stage here (if wine is to come from vinegar) than there was in the change from wine to vinegar. All that needs to be insisted upon is that neither is made of the other though there is a common matter that both are made of' (p. 278). It is argued in the paper that mixts cannot be said to have water as a component element if this does not mean that the mixt can come from, or can become, water. As for Aristotle's initial problem in this passage, perhaps wine is not potentially vinegar because this possibility is not encompassed by what Sarah Waterlow describes as 'the power of the natural substance to attain structure ... there (being) only one type of change that depends on the specific structure, namely that which results in the latter's full development. Aristotle ... identifies the behaviour that manifests substantial nature with a mere sub-class of all behavings of which the substance in question is physically capable', Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's Physics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 36-37.
14. 11 Duhem, op. cit., note 3, p. 25.
15. 12 Op. cit., note 1, p. 77.
16. 13 Op. cit., note 1, p. 81.
17. 14 Aristotle, op. cit., note 7, II.3.
18. 15 Op. cit., note 7, II.3.
19. 16 Op. cit., note 1, p. 81.
20. 17 Joachim, op. cit., note 1, pp. 81-82.
21. 18 Joachim, op cit., note 1, p. 82.
22. 19 Op. cit., note 1, pp. 82-83.
23. 20 Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist (1661; reprinted, London: Dent, 1911), p. 81.
24. 21 Pierre Duhem, L'evolution de la mécanique (Paris: A. Joanin, 1903; reprinted Paris: Vrin, 1992), p. 8.
25. 22 I discuss this distinction in more detail in 'Macroscopic Objects: An Exercise in Duhemian Ontology', forthcoming in Philosophy of Science.
26. 23 Cf. Röper, op. cit., note 6, p. 261, who also lays down an appropriate analogue for the cumulative reference condition.
27. 24 Op. cit., note 20, p. 82.
28. 25 Op. cit., note 3, p. 183.
29. 26 Op. cit., note 7, I.10.
30. 27 Op. cit., note 2, p. 141.
31. 28 Op cit., note 1, p.76, fn 4.
32. 29 Or at least not necessarily discrete. There might not actually be a quantity whose degree of some quality is intermediate between two given degrees. A proper formulation would have to take account of the temporal factor, and is not pursued here.
33. 30 Waterlow, op. cit., note 10, p. 85.
34. 31 Waterlow, op. cit., note 10, p. 87, fn.
35. 32 Stated in terms of the theory of mass predicates, what is possible is the mass disjunction of being water and being sugar. Mass disjunction involves existential quantification over the parts, but this existential quantification cannot be moved outside the scope of the possibility operator. There are no two mutually separate and jointly exhaustive parts of the sugared water one of which is possibly water and the other possibly sugar.
36. 33 A view more like the Stoic conception of mixture is offered in the article mentioned in note 22. Whether some alternative formulation can be found which does not rely on the predication of a distinct domain of quantities persisting through change - for example, in terms, of states applying to spatial regions at various times - remains to be seen. Note that spatial regions considered in the traditional Newtonian way persist through time.