The first philosophers of Greece : $b An edition and translation of the remaining fragments of the pre-Sokratic philosophers, together with a translation of the more important accounts of their opinions contained in the early epitomes of their worksFairbanks, Arthur
Philosophy
The first philosophers of Greece : $b An edition and translation of the remaining fragments of the pre-Sokratic philosophers, together with a translation of the more important accounts of their opinions contained in the early epitomes of their works
Fairbanks, Arthur
Philosophy, Ancient
impossible; for it is impossible that the rare should be as full as the
dense; but the rare is more empty than the dense, and there is no such
thing as emptiness. It is necessary to judge whether being is full or
not by its capacity to receive something else: if it will not receive
anything it is full; if it will receive something it is not full. Now if
the void does not exist, it must of necessity be full; and if this is
the case it does not move, not because it is impossible for it to move
through space already filled, as we say of bodies, but because all being
cannot be moved into being (for there is nothing besides itself), nor can
being be moved into not-being, for not-being does not exist.
23; 109, 7. Melissos also is blamed because in his frequent references
to the beginning he does not use the word to mean a beginning in time
which applies to that which comes into existence, but rather to mean a
logical beginning which does not apply to the things that are changing
collectively. He seems to have seen clearly before Aristotle that
all matter, even that which is eternal, being limited has a limited
capacity, and in itself is always at the end of time, and because of
the ever-moving beginning of that which passes, it is always at the
beginning, and remains eternal, so that that which has beginning and end
in quantity has also beginning and end in time, and the reverse; for that
which has beginning and end in time is not everything simultaneously.
So he bases his proof on beginning and end in time. Accordingly he
says that that which is not everything—_i.e._ which is not the whole
simultaneously—is not without beginning or end; what applies to things
that are indivisible and infinite in their being, applies so much the
more to pure being; and that all applies to being. Melissos puts it as
follows: (Fr. 7) Since then it did not come into being but _is_, it
always was and always will be, and has neither beginning nor end, but is
infinite. For if it had come into existence it would have had a beginning
(for that which once came into existence would have a beginning) and an
end (for that which once came into existence would come to an end); if it
neither had a beginning nor came to an end, it always was and always will
be; it has not beginning or end; but it is impossible that anything which
is not the whole should always exist.... l. 31. (Fr. 8) But as it always
exists, so it is necessary also that it be always infinite in magnitude.
l. 33. (Fr. 15) If being is separated it moves; and that which moves
could not exist simultaneously.
24; 110, 1 (Fr. 16) If being exists it must be one, and being one it
is necessary that it should not itself have body; (19; 87, 6) and if
it should have thickness, it would have parts and would no longer be a
unity. l. 3 (Fr. 9) Nothing which has beginning and end is either eternal
or infinite. l. 5 (Fr. 10) If it were not one, it would be bounded by
something else.[70]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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