Evidently, then, these thinkers
also consider that number is the principle both as matter for things
and as forming both their modifications and their permanent states,
and hold that the elements of number are the even and the odd, and
that of these the latter is limited, and the former unlimited; and
that the One proceeds from both of these (for it is both even and
odd), and number from the One; and that the whole heaven, as has
been said, is numbers.
Other members of this same school say there are ten principles,
which they arrange in two columns of cognates-limit and unlimited, odd
and even, one and plurality, right and left, male and female,
resting and moving, straight and curved, light and darkness, good
and bad, square and oblong. In this way Alcmaeon of Croton seems
also to have conceived the matter, and either he got this view from
them or they got it from him; for he expressed himself similarly to
them. For he says most human affairs go in pairs, meaning not definite
contrarieties such as the Pythagoreans speak of, but any chance
contrarieties, e.g. white and black, sweet and bitter, good and bad,
great and small. He threw out indefinite suggestions about the other
contrarieties, but the Pythagoreans declared both how many and which
their contraricties are.
From both these schools, then, we can learn this much, that the
contraries are the principles of things; and how many these principles
are and which they are, we can learn from one of the two schools.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28