Seite - 1547 - in The Complete Plato
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Cleinias. Excellent, Stranger, and I hope that you will do as you propose.
Athenian. Come, then, and if ever we are to call upon the Gods, let us call
upon them now in all seriousness to come to the demonstration of their own
existence. And so holding fast to the rope we will venture upon the depths of
the argument. When questions of this sort are asked of me, my safest answer
would appear to be as follows:—Some one says to me, “O Stranger, are all
things at rest and nothing in motion, or is the exact opposite of this true, or are
some things in motion and others at rest?—To this I shall reply that some
things are in motion and others at rest. “And do not things which move a
place, and are not the things which are at rest at rest in a place?” Certainly.
“And some move or rest in one place and some in more places than one?”
You mean to say, we shall rejoin, that those things which rest at the centre
move in one place, just as the circumference goes round of globes which are
said to be at rest? “Yes.” And we observe that, in the revolution, the motion
which carries round the larger and the lesser circle at the same time is
proportionally distributed to greater and smaller, and is greater and smaller in
a certain proportion. Here is a wonder which might be thought an
impossibility, that the same motion should impart swiftness and slowness in
due proportion to larger and lesser circles. “Very true.” And when you speak
of bodies moving in many places, you seem to me to mean those which move
from one place to another, and sometimes have one centre of motion and
sometimes more than one because they turn upon their axis; and whenever
they meet anything, if it be stationary, they are divided by it; but if they get in
the midst between bodies which are approaching and moving towards the
same spot from opposite directions, they unite with them. “I admit the truth of
what you are saying.” Also when they unite they grow, and when they are
divided they waste away—that is, supposing the constitution of each to
remain, or if that fails, then there is a second reason of their dissolution. “And
when are all things created and how?” Clearly, they are created when the first
principle receives increase and attains to the second dimension, and from this
arrives at the one which is neighbour to this, and after reaching the third
becomes perceptible to sense. Everything which is thus changing and moving
is in process of generation; only when at rest has it real existence, but when
passing into another state it is destroyed utterly. Have we not mentioned all
motions that there are, and comprehended them under their kinds and
numbered them with the exception, my friends, of two?
Cleinias. Which are they?
Athenian. Just the two, with which our present enquiry is concerned.
Cleinias. Speak plainer.
Athenian. I suppose that our enquiry has reference to the soul?
1547
zurĂĽck zum
Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International