Page - 1533 - in The Complete Aristotle
Image of the Page - 1533 -
Text of the Page - 1533 -
as steps even up to the higher realms of reality, and are more suited to these
than to theories about nature. They do not tell us at all, however, how there
can be movement if limit and unlimited and odd and even are the only things
assumed, or how without movement and change there can be generation and
destruction, or the bodies that move through the heavens can do what they do.
Further, if one either granted them that spatial magnitude consists of these
elements, or this were proved, still how would some bodies be light and
others have weight? To judge from what they assume and maintain they are
speaking no more of mathematical bodies than of perceptible; hence they
have said nothing whatever about fire or earth or the other bodies of this sort,
I suppose because they have nothing to say which applies peculiarly to
perceptible things.
Further, how are we to combine the beliefs that the attributes of number,
and number itself, are causes of what exists and happens in the heavens both
from the beginning and now, and that there is no other number than this
number out of which the world is composed? When in one particular region
they place opinion and opportunity, and, a little above or below, injustice and
decision or mixture, and allege, as proof, that each of these is a number, and
that there happens to be already in this place a plurality of the extended
bodies composed of numbers, because these attributes of number attach to the
various places,-this being so, is this number, which we must suppose each of
these abstractions to be, the same number which is exhibited in the material
universe, or is it another than this? Plato says it is different; yet even he thinks
that both these bodies and their causes are numbers, but that the intelligible
numbers are causes, while the others are sensible.
<
div id=“section23” class=“section” title=“9”>
9
Let us leave the Pythagoreans for the present; for it is enough to have
touched on them as much as we have done. But as for those who posit the
Ideas as causes, firstly, in seeking to grasp the causes of the things around us,
they introduced others equal in number to these, as if a man who wanted to
count things thought he would not be able to do it while they were few, but
tried to count them when he had added to their number. For the Forms are
practically equal to-or not fewer than-the things, in trying to explain which
these thinkers proceeded from them to the Forms. For to each thing there
answers an entity which has the same name and exists apart from the
substances, and so also in the case of all other groups there is a one over
1533
back to the
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