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air is so closely confined that it cannot find a passage, and therefore stays
where it is, is its great amount: and this amount great because the body which
isolates it, the earth, is very large. This result, then, will follow, even if the
earth is spherical, so long as it retains its size. So far as their arguments go,
the earth will still be at rest.
In general, our quarrel with those who speak of movement in this way
cannot be confined to the parts; it concerns the whole universe. One must
decide at the outset whether bodies have a natural movement or not, whether
there is no natural but only constrained movement. Seeing, however, that we
have already decided this matter to the best of our ability, we are entitled to
treat our results as representing fact. Bodies, we say, which have no natural
movement, have no constrained movement; and where there is no natural and
no constrained movement there will be no movement at all. This is a
conclusion, the necessity of which we have already decided, and we have
seen further that rest also will be inconceivable, since rest, like movement, is
either natural or constrained. But if there is any natural movement, constraint
will not be the sole principle of motion or of rest. If, then, it is by constraint
that the earth now keeps its place, the so-called ‘whirling’ movement by
which its parts came together at the centre was also constrained. (The form of
causation supposed they all borrow from observations of liquids and of air, in
which the larger and heavier bodies always move to the centre of the whirl.
This is thought by all those who try to generate the heavens to explain why
the earth came together at the centre. They then seek a reason for its staying
there; and some say, in the manner explained, that the reason is its size and
flatness, others, with Empedocles, that the motion of the heavens, moving
about it at a higher speed, prevents movement of the earth, as the water in a
cup, when the cup is given a circular motion, though it is often underneath the
bronze, is for this same reason prevented from moving with the downward
movement which is natural to it.) But suppose both the ‘whirl’ and its flatness
(the air beneath being withdrawn) cease to prevent the earth’s motion, where
will the earth move to then? Its movement to the centre was constrained, and
its rest at the centre is due to constraint; but there must be some motion which
is natural to it. Will this be upward motion or downward or what? It must
have some motion; and if upward and downward motion are alike to it, and
the air above the earth does not prevent upward movement, then no more
could air below it prevent downward movement. For the same cause must
necessarily have the same effect on the same thing.
Further, against Empedocles there is another point which might be made.
When the elements were separated off by Hate, what caused the earth to keep
its place? Surely the ‘whirl’ cannot have been then also the cause. It is absurd
too not to perceive that, while the whirling movement may have been
618
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- 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