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The science of nature is concerned with spatial magnitudes and motion and
time, and each of these at least is necessarily infinite or finite, even if some
things dealt with by the science are not, e.g. a quality or a point-it is not
necessary perhaps that such things should be put under either head. Hence it
is incumbent on the person who specializes in physics to discuss the infinite
and to inquire whether there is such a thing or not, and, if there is, what it is.
The appropriateness to the science of this problem is clearly indicated. All
who have touched on this kind of science in a way worth considering have
formulated views about the infinite, and indeed, to a man, make it a principle
of things.
(1) Some, as the Pythagoreans and Plato, make the infinite a principle in
the sense of a self-subsistent substance, and not as a mere attribute of some
other thing. Only the Pythagoreans place the infinite among the objects of
sense (they do not regard number as separable from these), and assert that
what is outside the heaven is infinite. Plato, on the other hand, holds that there
is no body outside (the Forms are not outside because they are nowhere),yet
that the infinite is present not only in the objects of sense but in the Forms
also.
Further, the Pythagoreans identify the infinite with the even. For this, they
say, when it is cut off and shut in by the odd, provides things with the element
of infinity. An indication of this is what happens with numbers. If the
gnomons are placed round the one, and without the one, in the one
construction the figure that results is always different, in the other it is always
the same. But Plato has two infinites, the Great and the Small.
The physicists, on the other hand, all of them, always regard the infinite as
an attribute of a substance which is different from it and belongs to the class
of the so-called elements-water or air or what is intermediate between them.
Those who make them limited in number never make them infinite in amount.
But those who make the elements infinite in number, as Anaxagoras and
Democritus do, say that the infinite is continuous by contact-compounded of
the homogeneous parts according to the one, of the seed-mass of the atomic
shapes according to the other.
Further, Anaxagoras held that any part is a mixture in the same way as the
All, on the ground of the observed fact that anything comes out of anything.
For it is probably for this reason that he maintains that once upon a time all
things were together. (This flesh and this bone were together, and so of any
thing: therefore all things: and at the same time too.) For there is a beginning
437
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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