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they do in fact obviously move. For though Strife âdissociatedâ, it was not by
Strife that the âEtherâ was borne upwards. On the contrary, sometimes he
attributes its movement to something like chance (âFor thus, as it ran, it
happened to meet them then, though often otherwiseâ), while at other times
he says it is the nature of Fire to be borne upwards, but âthe Etherâ (to quote
his words) âsank down upon the Earth with long rootsâ. With such statements,
too, he combines the assertion that the Order of the World is the same now, in
the reign of Strife, as it was formerly in the reign of Love. What, then, is the
âfirst moverâ of the âelementsâ? What causes their motion? Presumably not
Love and Strife: on the contrary, these are causes of a particular motion, if at
least we assume that âfirst moverâ to be an originative sourceâ.
An additional paradox is that the soul should consist of the âelementsâ, or
that it should be one of them. How are the soulâs âalterationsâ to take Place?
How, e.g. is the change from being musical to being unmusical, or how is
memory or forgetting, to occur? For clearly, if the soul be Fire, only such
modifications will happen to it as characterize Fire qua Fire: while if it be
compounded out of the elementsâ, only the corporeal modifications will occur
in it. But the changes we have mentioned are none of them corporeal.
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div class=âsectionâ title=â7â>
7
The discussion of these difficulties, however, is a task appropriate to a
different investigation:â let us return to the âelementsâ of which bodies are
composed. The theories that âthere is something common to all the
âelementsââ, and that they are reciprocally transformedâ, are so related that
those who accept either are bound to accept the other as well. Those, on the
other hand, who do not make their coming-to-be reciprocal-who refuse to
suppose that any one of the âelementsâ comes-to-be out of any other taken
singly, except in the sense in which bricks come-to-be out of a wall-are faced
with a paradox. How, on their theory, are flesh and bones or any of the other
compounds to result from the âelementsâ taken together?
Indeed, the point we have raised constitutes a problem even for those who
generate the âelementsâ out of one another. In what manner does anything
other than, and beside, the âelementsâ come-to-be out of them? Let me
illustrate my meaning. Water can come-to-be out of Fire and Fire out of
Water; for their substralum is something common to them both. But flesh too,
presumably, and marrow come-to-be out of them. How, then, do such things
come to-be? For (a) how is the manner of their coming-to-be to be conceived
696
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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