Disputationes tres (1583) - Page 4

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FIRST DISPUTATION ON
Nature, held at the Academy of Tübingen,
May 10, Exaudi Sunday,
the Year of Christ 1562.

QUESTION.

Since Aristotle, after the explanation and treatment of the Principles of natural things, speaks immediately of Nature, it is pleasing to ask: is this a good Method, or is it not?

THESIS I.

So that a more convenient path to the definition of Nature may be opened to us, and so that it may be better understood what it is, we establish such a difference between Art and Nature: that this latter has the principle of its motion within itself, that is, a certain innate inclination and Force (which Aristotle calls ὁρμὴν ἔμφυτον innate impulse), so that things may be moved in this way or that; whereas the former, that is, Artificial things, have the principle of their motion outside themselves, in so far as they are of this kind.

II.

Therefore, we say that Nature is the principle and cause of motion and rest in that in which it resides by itself, and not according to an Accident.