Single Idea 13265

[catalogued under 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / a. Intrinsic unification]

Full Idea

Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the project of how to account, in completely general terms, for the source of unity within a mereologically complex object.

Gist of Idea

Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object

Source

report of Plato (works [c.375 BCE]) by Kathrin Koslicki - The Structure of Objects 5.5

Book Reference

Koslicki,Kathrin: 'The Structure of Objects' [OUP 2008], p.120


A Reaction

Plato seems to have simply asserted that some sort of harmony held things together. Aristotles puts the forms [eidos] within objects, rather than external, so he has to give a fuller account of what is going on in an object. He never managed it!