248 SHEiLAii o'flynn brennan 



enlargement of the term nature corresponding to the gradation 

 of mobile beings in the philosophy of nature has not been con- 

 sidered: this possibility the present study aims particularly to 

 investigate. 



I 



Some Meanings of Natuee 



In Book V, Chapter 4, of his Metaphydcs, Aristotle runs 

 through several meanings of (f)vcrL<;, which in Latin becomes 

 natura and in English nature. Let us recall them briefly. 



1. Taking ^vcrt? to be derived from ^vea-Oai, "to grow," 

 Aristotle gives as the first meaning the genesis of growing 

 things. Hence ^vcn? means the process of a thing's coming into 

 being by growing from something, as a plant comes into exist- 

 ence by growing from a seed. In this sense, then, the word is 

 used for the generation of a living being. — Our English word 

 nature would not have this meaning, of course, nor does the 

 Latin natura, though nativitas, the process of birth, does have 

 a similar signification. 



2. Secondly, the word is taken to mean what the growing 

 being grows from, a source within the growing being. 



3. From this second sense is derived a more general meaning 

 of nature: nature as the intrinsic source, not only of generation, 

 but of the primary movement (including any type of change) 

 which is in a natural being by virtue of what it is. 



Thereupon, the meaning becomes more determinate, as this 

 inner source of movement or change is identified: 



4. First, with the formless primary stuff, of which a natural 

 thing consists or out of which it is made. It was in this sense 

 that the ancient " physicists " called the elements of natural 

 things their nature. 



5. Secondly, with essence or form (ovcrla) , for we cannot say 

 that those things which are or come to be by nature have their 

 nature unless they have their form and shape, even though the 

 matter (that from which they come) is present. 



Aristotle then retraces his steps in order to make certain 



