Abstract
Near the beginning of De Gen. et Cor. II.1, Aristotle claims that the generation and corruption of all naturally constituted substances are “not without the perceptible bodies” (328b32-33). It is not clear what he intends by this. In this paper I offer a new interpretation of this assertion. I argue that the assumption behind the usual reading, namely, that these “perceptible bodies” ought to be distinguished from the naturally constituted substances, is flawed, and that the assertion is best understood as a claim that Aristotle has established in the second half of the first book of the De Gen. et Cor.
Highlights
That the assertion is best understood as a claim that Aristotle has established in the second half of the first book of the De Gen. et Cor
Williams in his 1982 translation for the Clarendon Aristotle series: Generation and corruption in the case of all substances which are constituted by nature do not occur without the perceptible bodies. (De Gen. et Cor. 328b32-33)
Aristotle appears to be saying that these perceptible bodies are necessary or indispensable for the generation and corruption of all naturally constituted substances
Summary
That the assertion is best understood as a claim that Aristotle has established in the second half of the first book of the De Gen. et Cor. The problem with interpretation A, it seems, is that it would appear to render the assertion trivial and uninformative: for if the expressions “naturally constituted substances” and “the perceptible bodies” both designate the same things, i.e., corruptible composite substances, such as plants and animals, Aristotle would appear to be saying no more than that the most significant changes that corruptible composite substances undergo necessarily involve corruptible composite substances.
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