Heavenly matter in aristotle, metaphysics Lambda 2

This paper emphasizes an unnoticed connection between two lines in Aristotle, Metaphysics Λ1, 1069a32, and Λ2, 1069b26. It argues that the Greek text of the former has been obscured in standard editions by unnecessary emendation: if the reading of the mss. is preserved, the text here sets out a programme for research into the elements of heavenly bodies which is taken up in the second part of Λ.2. There, Aristotle distinguishes the matter of heavenly substance as if it were matter in a certain sense only, and not sensustricto: the only change it underlies iscoming-to-be 'from one place to another'(not from privation to form, the standard case). In θ.8 as well, this is what allows Aristotle to deny that eternal things can have matter (strictly speaking) as an element of their substance. The reading argued for here may also explain how Aristotle can claim, by the end of Lambda, that he has succeeded in responding to an important aporia which (he says) was neglected by predecessors, namely 'why some things are corruptible and other incorruptible' (Metaphysics B, Aporia 10).