And if, as we
were saying, the matter is that which is potentially each thing,
e.g. that of actual fire is that which is potentially fire, the bad
will be just the potentially good.
All these objections, then, follow, partly because they make every
principle an element, partly because they make contraries
principles, partly because they make the One a principle, partly
because they treat the numbers as the first substances, and as capable
of existing apart, and as Forms.
5
If, then, it is equally impossible not to put the good among the
first principles and to put it among them in this way, evidently the
principles are not being correctly described, nor are the first
substances. Nor does any one conceive the matter correctly if he
compares the principles of the universe to that of animals and plants,
on the ground that the more complete always comes from the
indefinite and incomplete-which is what leads this thinker to say that
this is also true of the first principles of reality, so that the
One itself is not even an existing thing. This is incorrect, for
even in this world of animals and plants the principles from which
these come are complete; for it is a man that produces a man, and
the seed is not first.
It is out of place, also, to generate place simultaneously with
the mathematical solids (for place is peculiar to the individual
things, and hence they are separate in place; but mathematical objects
are nowhere), and to say that they must be somewhere, but not say what
kind of thing their place is.
Pages:
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385