The Loss Was in the Arrangement

This post was written as part of the Catherine Project class "Ancient Greek Writings on Knowledge and Mathematics." This is a lightly edited version of the original. A car and a crashed car contain almost exactly the same matter[^1]. Same steel and glass, same rubber, and same copper. Both have the same inventory of matter, whether or not you believe it's made up of atoms. But one gets you to the grocery store, and the other sits on the side of the road waiting to be towed. It is all the same stuff, but something has been lost: the engine may no longer transform fuel into motion, or the wheels may no longer roll on the road. The parts are still present, but their powers have been lost in the scramble. The loss was in the arrangement. Aristotle opens Book II of his *Physics* trying to explain why things are what they are. Some things are due to nature. Others, he says, are due to art, luck, coincidence, or necessity (192b8**)**. But if you ask what a thing is, you cannot stop at what…