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by those who maintain a theory like that of Empedocles? They must conceive
it as composition-just as a wall comes-to-be out of bricks and stones: and the
‘Mixture’, of which they speak, will be composed of the ‘elements’, these
being preserved in it unaltered but with their small particles juxtaposed each
to each. That will be the manner, presumably, in which flesh and every other
compound results from the ‘elements’. Consequently, it follows that Fire and
Water do not come-to-be ‘out of any and every part of flesh’. For instance,
although a sphere might come-to-be out of this part of a lump of wax and a
pyramid out of some other part, it was nevertheless possible for either figure
to have come-to-be out of either part indifferently: that is the manner of
coming-to-be when ‘both Fire and Water come-to-be out of any and every
part of flesh’. Those, however, who maintain the theory in question, are not at
liberty to conceive that ‘both come-to-be out of flesh’ in that manner, but only
as a stone and a brick ‘both come-to-be out of a wall’-viz. each out of a
different place or part. Similarly (b) even for those who postulate a single
matter of their ‘elements’ there is a certain difficulty in explaining how
anything is to result from two of them taken together-e.g. from ‘cold’ and
hot’, or from Fire and Earth. For if flesh consists of both and is neither of
them, nor again is a ‘composition’ of them in which they are preserved
unaltered, what alternative is left except to identify the resultant of the two
‘elements’ with their matter? For the passingaway of either ‘element’
produces either the other or the matter.
Perhaps we may suggest the following solution. (i) There are differences of
degree in hot and cold. Although, therefore, when either is fully real without
qualification, the other will exist potentially; yet, when neither exists in the
full completeness of its being, but both by combining destroy one another’s
excesses so that there exist instead a hot which (for a ‘hot’) is cold and a cold
which (for a ‘cold’) is hot; then what results from these two contraries will be
neither their matter, nor either of them existing in its full reality without
qualification. There will result instead an ‘intermediate’: and this
‘intermediate’, according as it is potentially more hot than cold or vice versa,
will possess a power-of-heating that is double or triple its power-of-cooling,
or otherwise related thereto in some similar ratio. Thus all the other bodies
will result from the contraries, or rather from the ‘elements’, in so far as these
have been ‘combined’: while the elements’ will result from the contraries, in
so far as these ‘exist potentially’ in a special sense-not as matter ‘exists
potentially’, but in the sense explained above. And when a thing comes-to-be
in this manner, the process is cobination’; whereas what comes-to-be in the
other manner is matter. Moreover (ii) contraries also ‘suffer action’, in
accordance with the disjunctively-articulated definition established in the
early part of this work.’ For the actually-hot is potentially-cold and the
697
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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