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can be suggested and shorter than none, then it will be possible for one and
the same thing to exist for infinite time and not to exist for another infinity.
This, however, is impossible.
Let us take our start from this point. The impossible and the false have not
the same significance. One use of ‘impossible’ and ‘possible’, and ‘false’ and
‘true’, is hypothetical. It is impossible, for instance, on a certain hypothesis
that the triangle should have its angles equal to two right angles, and on
another the diagonal is commensurable. But there are also things possible and
impossible, false and true, absolutely. Now it is one thing to be absolutely
false, and another thing to be absolutely impossible. To say that you are
standing when you are not standing is to assert a falsehood, but not an
impossibility. Similarly to say that a man who is playing the harp, but not
singing, is singing, is to say what is false but not impossible. To say, however,
that you are at once standing and sitting, or that the diagonal is
commensurable, is to say what is not only false but also impossible. Thus it is
not the same thing to make a false and to make an impossible hypothesis, and
from the impossible hypothesis impossible results follow. A man has, it is
true, the capacity at once of sitting and of standing, because when he
possesses the one he also possesses the other; but it does not follow that he
can at once sit and stand, only that at another time he can do the other also.
But if a thing has for infinite time more than one capacity, another time is
impossible and the times must coincide. Thus if a thing which exists for
infinite time is destructible, it will have the capacity of not being. Now if it
exists for infinite time let this capacity be actualized; and it will be in
actuality at once existent and non-existent. Thus a false conclusion would
follow because a false assumption was made, but if what was assumed had
not been impossible its consequence would not have been impossible.
Anything then which always exists is absolutely imperishable. It is also
ungenerated, since if it was generated it will have the power for some time of
not being. For as that which formerly was, but now is not, or is capable at
some future time of not being, is destructible, so that which is capable of
formerly not having been is generated. But in the case of that which always is,
there is no time for such a capacity of not being, whether the supposed time is
finite or infinite; for its capacity of being must include the finite time since it
covers infinite time.
It is therefore impossible that one and the same thing should be capable of
always existing and of always not-existing. And ‘not always existing’, the
contradictory, is also excluded. Thus it is impossible for a thing always to
exist and yet to be destructible. Nor, similarly, can it be generated. For of two
attributes if B cannot be present without A, the impossibility A of proves the
594
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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