A dynamic ontology: on how Aristotle arrived at the conclusion that eternal change accomplishes ousia

Nature is difficult. As Aristotle reminds us at the opening of Physics I, the principles of nature are obscure to us, at least at the beginning, although they are clearer in their own right. So, Aristotle’s preferred methodology in approaching the study of nature is to start with what is more familiar to us and to move from there to what makes more sense in its own right. Aristotle’s use of the craft analogy is a well-known instance of this methodology. He begins with a miscellany of craft-related examples to elucidate the distinction between the four causes before moving to its application to nature, where the four causes are much trickier to disentangle. This chapter sets out to show that Aristotle applies this methodology also to a fundamental aspect of the distinction between being and change.