Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle

Question Four

QUESTION FOUR Is it necessary to assume a status in every kind of cause? “But clearly things have a beginning, and the causes of things are not infinite.”1 1 [1] In this connection the question is raised: Is it necessary to assume a status in every kind of cause? [Arguments Pro and Con] For the negative view: According to Bk. VIII of the Physics,2 motion, especially circular motion, never had a beginning, and if this be so, then generation also did not, from II On Generation and Corruption.3 Therefore , infinite generations have come to be and each generation has its own proximate efficient cause, final cause, and matter in those things which are generated by way of propagation. Hence, a l l [types] of causes are infinite. 2 When there is an infinite distance between extremes, an infinite number of intermediaries is possible. But between the first efficient cause and any other efficient cause there is an infinite distance , and hence also between other causes, viz. the formal and final. Proof of the major: The more distant some things are, the more intermediaries can be between them. Therefore, if they are infinitely distant, there can be an infinity of intermediaries.—Also, I apply the same major premise to matter, with this minor. Being is infinitely distant from nothing. Therefore, between nothing and being, an infinity of potential entities is possible. But matter is of this sort. 1 Aristotle, Metaphysics II, ch. 2, 994a 1-2. 2 Aristotle, Physics VIII, ch. 1, 250b 19-21. 3 Aristotle, De generatione et corruptione II, ch. 10, 336a 15-20. 204 THE METAPHYSICS OF JOHN DUNS SCOTUS 3 For the opposite: What the Philosopher says in the text4 of every type of cause proves that there is a status. QUESTION FIVE Can one proceed to infinity in effects so that there exists an actual infinity? [Arguments Pro and Con] 4 [For the affirmative] It seems that one can: Any difference among any sort of thing has another opposite difference that codivides that class of things. But the finite in act represents a difference in quantity. Therefore, it has the infinite as its opposite difference; and this is the infinite in act, not the infinite in potency, because opposed differences are not mutually compatible. But the same thing can be actually finite and potentially infinite. Therefore, the finite in act has as its opposite the infinite in act. 5 Also, according to Bk. VI of the Topics,5 Aristotle rejects the definition of a straight line as that “to which a middle is added to its ends, because those things that are infinite have neither a middle nor an end. But a straight line is infinite.” Therefore, infinity is not opposed to a straight line. 6 Also, according to Physics III:6 “Any magnitude that can exist potentially can exist actually.” But magnitude can be infinite potentially, because according to II On the Soul:7 “Fire goes on without limit so long as there is a supply of fuel.” 7 Also, “the continuum is divisible into divisibles that are always divisible,” according to Bk. VI of the Physics.8 But number 4 Aristotle, Metaphysics II, ch. 2, 994a 1-994b 31. 5 Aristotle, Topics Bk. VI, ch. 19, 148b 26-32. 6 Aristotle, Physics III, ch. 7, 207b 17-18. 7 Aristotle, De anima II, ch. 4, 416a 15-16. 8 Aristotle, Physics VI, ch. 1, 231b 15-16; De caelo et mundo I, ch. 1, 268a 6-7. ...