Jewish philosophy -- Early works to 1800; Judaism -- Works to 1900; Philosophy, Medieval -- Early works to 1800
Time is an accident that is related and joined to motion in such a
manner that the one is never found without the other. Motion is only
possible in time, and the idea of time cannot be conceived otherwise
than in connexion with motion; things which do not move have no
relation to time.
Proposition XVI.
Incorporeal bodies can only be numbered when they are forces situated
in a body; the several forces must then be counted together with
substances or objects in which they exist. Hence purely spiritual
beings, which are neither corporeal nor forces situated in corporeal
objects, cannot be counted, except when considered as causes and
effects.
Proposition XVII.
When an object moves, there must be some agent that moves it, from
without, as, e.g., in the case of a stone set in motion by the hand; or
from within, e.g., when the body of a living being moves. Living beings
include in themselves, at the same time, the moving agent and the thing
moved; when, therefore, a living being dies, and the moving agent, the
soul, has left the body, i.e., the thing moved, the body remains for
some time in the same condition as before, and yet cannot move in the
manner it has moved previously. The moving agent, when included in the
thing moved, is hidden from, and imperceptible to, the senses. This
circumstance gave rise to the belief that the body of an animal moves
without the aid of a moving agent. When we therefore affirm, concerning
a thing in motion, that it is its own moving agent, or, as is generally
said, that it moves of its own accord, we mean to say that the force
which really sets the body in motion exists in that body itself.
Proposition XVIII.
Everything that passes over from a state of potentiality to that of
actuality, is caused to do so by some external agent; because if that
agent existed in the thing itself, and no obstacle prevented the
transition, the thing would never be in a state of potentiality, but
always in that of actuality. If, on the other hand, while the thing
itself contained that agent, some obstacle existed, and at a certain
time that obstacle was removed, the same cause which removed the
obstacle would undoubtedly be described as the cause of the transition
from potentiality to actuality, [and not the force situated within the
body]. Note this.
Proposition XIX.
A thing which owes its existence to certain causes has in itself merely
the possibility of existence; for only if these causes exist, the thing
likewise exists. It does not exist if the causes do not exist at all,
or if they have ceased to exist, or if there has been a change in the
relation which implies the existence of that thing as a necessary
consequence of those causes.
Proposition XX.
A thing which has in itself the necessity of existence cannot have for
its existence any cause whatever.
Proposition XXI.
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