Along Came "Physics": Aristotle's Beliefs Reflected in "Along Came Polly"

In his work, Physics, Aristotle dissects different theories about nature and how some things exist from nature, while others occur from different causes. He analyzes previous thinkers’ work on the subject and states reasons why their work does not fully explain nature correctly. Aristotle writes about examples such as the nature of a house, which came to be because of the builder and his supplies of wood and stone. The house is the product of house-building. It is the end result with which the art, or techne, of the builder is concerned. Aristotle asserts that “as things are called causes in many ways, it follows that there are several causes of the same thing” (333). In the case of the house, the work of the builder and the wood and stone are causes of the house. He points out that the wood and stone are the material causes, but they need the “cause whence the motion comes” (333) - i.e., the art of the builder - to create the house. The art itself comes from nature, which the author claims that “each of them [things existing by nature] has within itself a principle of motion and of stationariness” (329). Motion is needed for the creation of things.

After Aristotle asserts his position on the above-mentioned subject, he mentions that chance and spontaneity are included in the realm of causes. However, not everyone believes in them. Some people think that when chance is blamed to be the cause of something, another cause, the true and right one, can be found for the occurrence. According to Physics, the early physicists did not recognize chance or spontaneity among their causes of nature; they always ascribed less random causes to their reasoning. Some do not agree. Aristotle points out that “there are some who actually ascribe this heavenly sphere...and the divinest of visible things arose spontaneously, having no such cause as is assigned to animals and plants” (335). Aristotle finds this belief absurd, though, since no one is seeing anything coming about spontaneously in the heavens now. Would we not bear witness to spontaneity giving birth to other causes if that were the case? Others postulate that chance is a cause, but we mere humans cannot fully understand it or know when chance has happened.

Aristotle defines the differences between chance and spontaneity. Chance happens when action is involved. A choice must be made in order to chance to follow. Therefore, chance does not occur for things incapable of choice, like animals. Only thinking, reasoning adults have the ability to choose; therefore, they operate in the realm of chance. Spontaneity, though, encompasses anything from humans to animals to inanimate objects (337). Aristotle believes that both chance and spontaneity are causes, but they are not original causes. Physics tells its audience that nature and intelligence created the universe.

When I read about chance and spontaneity, I thought about the film Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller’s character, Reuben, is a risk analyst who falls for Jennifer Aniston’s character, Polly, a free-loving spirit. Reuben assesses the risks he is taking by dating Polly as opposed to someone else because he spends his whole life believing that rational causes change his life, not chance or spontaneity. He lives with rigid rules and a schedule that tries to eliminate chance. Through meeting Polly, however, Reuben realizes, as Aristotle has, that chance and spontaneity, while not the first causes, can cause many things to be put into motion. After all, Rueben did not plan to fall in love with Polly; it was accidental, by chance. He ends up taking risks and finds that chance is not only just a cause, but a potential cause for happiness as well. Aristotle even says that when it comes to positive chance, or good fortune, it is thought “to be the same, or nearly the same, as happiness, and happiness to be a kind of action, since it is well-doing” (337). Reuben makes the choice and takes action after a conflict with Polly (shown below) to throw away plans and give himself over to chance in order to find happiness. In the beginning Reuben is similar to the physicists of old who did not take into account chance and spontaneity. By the end, Reuben’s thinking more closely resembles Aristotle’s, and he is all the happier for it.

Aristotle. Physics. Trans. R.P. Hardie and R.K. Gaye. The Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1. Ed.   

         Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1984.

MovieClips. Along Came Polly (8/10) Movie CLIP: The Non-Plan Plan (2004). YouTube. 27 June 

         2011. 29 Sept. 2012.