[987a]
[1]
Of
these he ranks Hot under Being and the other under Not-being.1From the account just given,
and from a consideration of those thinkers who have already debated
this question, we have acquired the following information. From the
earliest philosophers we have learned that the first principle is
corporeal (since water and fire and the like are bodies); some of them
assume one and others more than one corporeal principle, but both
parties agree in making these principles material. Others assume in
addition to this cause the source of motion, which some
hold to be one and others two.Thus down to and apart from the Italian2
philosophers the other thinkers have expressed themselves vaguely on
the subject, except that, as we have said, they actually employ two
causes, and one of these—the source of motion
—some regard as one and others as two. The Pythagoreans,
while they likewise spoke of two principles, made this further
addition, which is peculiar to them: they believed, not that the
Limited and the Unlimited are separate entities, like fire or water or
some other such thing, but that the Unlimited itself and the One
itself are the essence of those things of which they are predicated,
and hence that number is the essence of all things.
[20]
Such is the nature of their pronouncements on
this subject. They also began to discuss and define the "what" of
things; but their procedure was far too simple. They defined
superficially, and supposed that the essence of a thing is that to
which the term under consideration first applies—e.g. as if
it were to be thought that "double" and "2" are the same, because 2 is
the first number which is double another.But presumably "to be double a number" is not
the same as "to be the number 2." Otherwise, one thing will be
many—a consequence which actually followed in their
system.3 This much, then, can be learned from other and
earlier schools of thought.The philosophies described
above were succeeded by the system of Plato,4 which in most respects accorded with
them, but contained also certain peculiar features distinct from the
philosophy of the Italians.In his youth Plato first became acquainted with Cratylus5 and the Heraclitean
doctrines—that the whole sensible world is always in a state
of flux,6 and that there is no
scientific knowledge of it—and in after years he still held
these opinions.
1 Cf. note on Aristot. Met. 3.13.
2 The Pythagoreans; so called because Pythagoras founded his society at Croton.
3 i.e., the same number might be the first to which each of several definitions applied; then that number would be each of the concepts so defined.
4 Compare Aristot. Met. 12.4.2-5.
5 Cf. Aristot. Met. 4.5.18.
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