Seite - 576 - in The Complete Aristotle
Bild der Seite - 576 -
Text der Seite - 576 -
that which moves in a circle, at whatever point it begins, must necessarily
pass through all the contrary places alike. (By contrarieties of place I mean up
and down, back and front, and right and left; and the contrary oppositions of
movements are determined by those of places.) One of the motions, then,
would be ineffective, for if the two motions were of equal strength, there
would be no movement either way, and if one of the two were preponderant,
the other would be inoperative. So that if both bodies were there, one of them,
inasmuch as it would not be moving with its own movement, would be
useless, in the sense in which a shoe is useless when it is not worn. But God
and nature create nothing that has not its use.
<
div id=“section5” class=“section” title=“5”>
5
This being clear, we must go on to consider the questions which remain.
First, is there an infinite body, as the majority of the ancient philosophers
thought, or is this an impossibility? The decision of this question, either way,
is not unimportant, but rather all-important, to our search for the truth. It is
this problem which has practically always been the source of the differences
of those who have written about nature as a whole. So it has been and so it
must be; since the least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a
thousandfold. Admit, for instance, the existence of a minimum magnitude,
and you will find that the minimum which you have introduced, small as it is,
causes the greatest truths of mathematics to totter. The reason is that a
principle is great rather in power than in extent; hence that which was small at
the start turns out a giant at the end. Now the conception of the infinite
possesses this power of principles, and indeed in the sphere of quantity
possesses it in a higher degree than any other conception; so that it is in no
way absurd or unreasonable that the assumption that an infinite body exists
should be of peculiar moment to our inquiry. The infinite, then, we must now
discuss, opening the whole matter from the beginning.
Every body is necessarily to be classed either as simple or as composite;
the infinite body, therefore, will be either simple or composite.
But it is clear, further, that if the simple bodies are finite, the composite
must also be finite, since that which is composed of bodies finite both in
number and in magnitude is itself finite in respect of number and magnitude:
its quantity is in fact the same as that of the bodies which compose it. What
remains for us to consider, then, is whether any of the simple bodies can be
infinite in magnitude, or whether this is impossible. Let us try the primary
576
zurück 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