• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.129
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• pp.291-313
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• 2014

The aim of this paper is to clarify the Aristotle's conception of change(kinesis). Aristotle defines the change as a process which actualize a potentiality. From Aristotle's definition of the change, a number of consequences flow directly about how to conceptualize it. First, the change is fundamentally directional. Second, if we do not know what the change is directed toward, we do not understand what the change is. Third, everything that changes is caused to change by a distinct cause of change, a changer. Fourth, there is a single actualization of cause and subject of the change. All change, for Aristotle, is the change of an enduring subject. And all change occur in the infinite(to apeiron) which is time, space, matter. It would be absurd to equate the whole and the infinite, for that would be to say that the unlimited had a limit. The infinite does not contain, but in so far as it is infinite, is contained. And due at least in part to its potentiality, the infinite is unknowable. Because it lacks a form. The infinite traditionally derived its dignity from being thought of as a whole in which everything is contained. But Aristotle removes the infinite from its position of majesty. Aristotle's this idea was a revolution in philosophical perspective.