The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
9. This being well understood, it is manifest, that nothing can rightly
be called a whole, that is not conceived to be compounded of parts, and
that it may be divided into parts; so that if we deny that a thing has
parts, we deny the same to be a whole. For example, if we say the soul
can have no parts, we affirm that no soul can be a whole soul. Also it
is manifest, that nothing has parts till it be divided; and when a thing
is divided, the parts are only so many as the division makes them.
Again, that a part of a part is a part of the whole; and thus any part
of the number _four_, as _two_, is a part of the number _eight_; for
_four_ is made of _two_ and _two_; but _eight_ is compounded of _two_,
_two_, and _four_, and therefore _two_, which is a part of the part
_four_, is also a part of the whole _eight_.
[Sidenote: Spaces and times contiguous and continual.]
10. Two spaces are said to be CONTIGUOUS, when there is no other space
betwixt them. But two times, betwixt which there is no other time, are
called immediate, as A B, B C.[Sidenote: A B C] And any two
spaces, as well as times, are said to be CONTINUAL, when they have one
common part, as A C, B D, where the part B C is common; [Sidenote:
A B C D] and more spaces and times are continual, when every two
which are next one another are continual.
A B C D
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A B C
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[Sidenote: Beginning, end, way, finite, infinite.]
11. That part which is between two other parts, is called a MEAN; and
that which is not between two other parts, an EXTREME. And of extremes,
that which is first reckoned is the BEGINNING, and that which last, the
END; and all the means together taken are the WAY. Also, _extreme parts_
and _limits_ are the same thing. And from hence it is manifest, that
_beginning_ and _end_ depend upon the order in which we number them; and
that to _terminate_ or _limit_ space and time, is the same thing with
_imagining their beginning and end_; as also that every thing is FINITE
or INFINITE, according as we imagine or not imagine it _limited_ or
_terminated_ every way; and that the _limits_ of any number are
_unities_, and of these, that which is the first in our numbering is the
_beginning_, and that which we number last, is the _end_. When we say
number is _infinite_, we mean only that no number is expressed; for when
we speak of the numbers _two_, _three_, _a thousand_, &c. they are
always _finite_. But when no more is said but this, _number is
infinite_, it is to be understood as if it were said, this name _number_
is an _indefinite_ name.
[Sidenote: What is infinite in power. Nothing infinite can be truly said
to be either whole or one; nor infinite spaces or times,
many.]