Single Idea 20825

[catalogued under 9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 8. Parts of Objects / c. Wholes from parts]

Full Idea

How could the divisibility of bodies be preserved if division is the separation of what is united, and according to them all things stay united with each other, all the same even when they are divided?

Gist of Idea

How is divisibility possible, if stoics say things remain united when they are divided?

Source

comment on Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Alexander - On Mixture 2.2

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.96


A Reaction

Evidently the stoics were committed to unrestricted mereological composition (that any parts make a whole, no matter how scattered). Alexander points out that this makes the concept of 'division' of an entity meaningless.