213
of anyone who has taken account of this aspect of rest. One cannot understand the being of beings at all if one does not take into account (1) the averageness of the being-there of the world, (2) the character of the for-the-most-part-being-at-hand-as-resting. Rest is a basic character of the being-there of the world in which I operate. Rest is only a determinate ἀκινησία. Not every ἀκινησία is already ἠρεμία. A geometrical figure, whose being is already characterized by ἀκινησία, is not at rest, for it cannot move itself. Rest is a distinctive ἀκινησία. The assertion of rest only has meaning for a being that can move itself. This phenomenon has been neglected in the customary interpretation, in the interpretation of what Aristotle is here interpreting as movement: movement as the distinctive mode of the being-present of a being that appears in the world. With mere verbal concepts of actuality and non-actuality, one does not approach movement.
In the following passages from Chapter 1, Aristotle further clarifies movement. “When we say about what is constructible, about it insofar as it is this, that it is as such presently there, then it is under construction”93—the building-logs at hand, and so on. If we address it in itself as constructible (οἰκοδομητόν), then we are saying: “it is being constructed.” The being-under-construction is κίνησις as οἰκοδόμησις.94 Insofar as κίνησις is the presence of this being-from-to, it is important to establish the categorial grasping of beings with respect to its διχῶς. Presence, which movement is determined as, is not the actuality of non-actuality in a determinate sense.95
§27. Movement as ἀόριστον (Physics Γ2)
We are proceeding to Chapter 2: clarificatory distinction between ἐντελέχεια and δύναμις. De Anima Β 7: determination of color simply as ὁρατόν,96 “that which becomes accessible through seeing.” Color is what has, in itself, this state, according to its being, of being perceived only through sight. As color can be present as color only through the διαφανές,97 so is light, the light of the sun, defined here as ἐνέργεια τοῦ διαφανοῦς ᾗ διαφανές.98 Ἐνέργεια determined as παρουσία, darkness determined as στέρησις,99 absence of light that itself can be understood only on account of the presence of the transparent. Although χρῶμα is to be apprehended as ὁρατόν, color-being and the ability-to-be-seen are not the same.
93. Phys. Γ 1, 200 b 16 sq.: ὅταν γὰρ τὸ οἰκοδομητόν, ᾗ τοιοῦτον αὐτὸ λέγομεν εἶναι, ἐντελεχείᾳ ᾖ, οἰκοδομεῖται.
94. Phys. Γ 1, 200 b 18.
95. See Hs. S. 378 ff.
96. De an. Β 7, 418 b 29.
97. De an. Β 7, 418 a 31 sq.: πᾶν δὲ χρῶμα κινητικόν ἐστι τοῦ κατ’ ἐνέργειαν διαφανοῦς.
98. De an. Β 7, 418 b 9 sq.
99. De an. Β 7, 418 b 19sq.