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thing defined, as if one supposed that ‘double’ and ‘2’ were the same, because
2 is the first thing of which ‘double’ is predicable. But surely to be double and
to be 2 are not the same; if they are, one thing will be many-a consequence
which they actually drew. From the earlier philosophers, then, and from their
successors we can learn thus much.
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6
After the systems we have named came the philosophy of Plato, which in
most respects followed these thinkers, but had pecullarities that distinguished
it from the philosophy of the Italians. For, having in his youth first become
familiar with Cratylus and with the Heraclitean doctrines (that all sensible
things are ever in a state of flux and there is no knowledge about them), these
views he held even in later years. Socrates, however, was busying himself
about ethical matters and neglecting the world of nature as a whole but
seeking the universal in these ethical matters, and fixed thought for the first
time on definitions; Plato accepted his teaching, but held that the problem
applied not to sensible things but to entities of another kind-for this reason,
that the common definition could not be a definition of any sensible thing, as
they were always changing. Things of this other sort, then, he called Ideas,
and sensible things, he said, were all named after these, and in virtue of a
relation to these; for the many existed by participation in the Ideas that have
the same name as they. Only the name ‘participation’ was new; for the
Pythagoreans say that things exist by ‘imitation’ of numbers, and Plato says
they exist by participation, changing the name. But what the participation or
the imitation of the Forms could be they left an open question.
Further, besides sensible things and Forms he says there are the objects of
mathematics, which occupy an intermediate position, differing from sensible
things in being eternal and unchangeable, from Forms in that there are many
alike, while the Form itself is in each case unique.
Since the Forms were the causes of all other things, he thought their
elements were the elements of all things. As matter, the great and the small
were principles; as essential reality, the One; for from the great and the small,
by participation in the One, come the Numbers.
But he agreed with the Pythagoreans in saying that the One is substance
and not a predicate of something else; and in saying that the Numbers are the
causes of the reality of other things he agreed with them; but positing a dyad
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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