ABSTRACT
Aristotle believed that, even though most singular beings are subjected to the rule of coming to be and passing away, the great chain of being also includes eternal and unchanging substances which represent grades of existence much higher and more perfect than are found in the sublunar world. One could perhaps find existential aspects in Aristotle’s theory of time and eternity. It is sufficient to note that in some contexts Aristotle considered the distinction between changing and unchanging beings as overlapping with the classification of beings into necessary and contingent ones. Aristotle’s most extensive discussion of the modal aspects of omnitemporal beings is found in De caelo I.12 where it is argued that everything that exists forever is ungenerated and indestructible. Modal terms are used to express relative frequencies of generic states of affairs. The link between necessity and omnitemporal actuality is often assumed without discussion in Aristotle’s works.
