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is in process of intervening, will be eclipsed because the earth will intervene,
is eclipsed because the earth intervenes.
To take a second example: assuming that the definition of ice is solidified
water, let C be water, A solidified, B the middle, which is the cause, namely
total failure of heat. Then B is attributed to C, and A, solidification, to B: ice
when B is occurring, has formed when B has occurred, and will form when B
shall occur.
This sort of cause, then, and its effect come to be simultaneously when they
are in process of becoming, and exist simultaneously when they actually
exist; and the same holds good when they are past and when they are future.
But what of cases where they are not simultaneous? Can causes and effects
different from one another form, as they seem to us to form, a continuous
succession, a past effect resulting from a past cause different from itself, a
future effect from a future cause different from it, and an effect which is
coming-to-be from a cause different from and prior to it? Now on this theory
it is from the posterior event that we reason (and this though these later events
actually have their source of origin in previous eventsâa fact which shows
that also when the effect is coming-to-be we still reason from the posterior
event), and from the event we cannot reason (we cannot argue that because an
event A has occurred, therefore an event B has occurred subsequently to A but
still in the past-and the same holds good if the occurrence is future)-cannot
reason because, be the time interval definite or indefinite, it will never be
possible to infer that because it is true to say that A occurred, therefore it is
true to say that B, the subsequent event, occurred; for in the interval between
the events, though A has already occurred, the latter statement will be false.
And the same argument applies also to future events; i.e. one cannot infer
from an event which occurred in the past that a future event will occur. The
reason of this is that the middle must be homogeneous, past when the
extremes are past, future when they are future, coming to be when they are
coming-to-be, actually existent when they are actually existent; and there
cannot be a middle term homogeneous with extremes respectively past and
future. And it is a further difficulty in this theory that the time interval can be
neither indefinite nor definite, since during it the inference will be false. We
have also to inquire what it is that holds events together so that the coming-to-
be now occurring in actual things follows upon a past event. It is evident, we
may suggest, that a past event and a present process cannot be âcontiguousâ,
for not even two past events can be âcontiguousâ. For past events are limits
and atomic; so just as points are not âcontiguousâ neither are past events, since
both are indivisible. For the same reason a past event and a present process
cannot be âcontiguousâ, for the process is divisible, the event indivisible. Thus
the relation of present process to past event is analogous to that of line to
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zurĂŒck zum
Buch The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Titel
- The Complete Aristotle
- Autor
- Aristotle
- Datum
- ~322 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 2328
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156