more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Some philosophers thought what is must be one and immovable. The void, they say, is not: but unless there is a void what is cannot be moved, nor can it be many, since there is nothing to keep things apart.
Gist of Idea
The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation
Source
report of Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE]) by Aristotle - Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr) 325a06
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'The Basic Works of Aristotle', ed/tr. McKeon,Richard [Modern Library Classics 2001], p.497
A Reaction
Somehow this doesn't seem very persuasive any more! I suppose we would distinguish various degrees of void, and assert the existence of sufficient void to allow movement and separation. We must surely agree that total nothingness doesn't exist.
| 13217 | The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation [Parmenides, by Aristotle] |
| 5100 | The void is not required for change, because a plenum can alter in quality [Aristotle on Melissus] |
| 24059 | Democritus is wrong: in a void we wouldn't see a distant ant in exact detail [Aristotle on Democritus] |
| 5101 | Movement is impossible in a void, because nothing can decide the direction of movement [Aristotle on Democritus] |
| 20905 | Growth and movement would not exist if there were no void to receive them [Democritus] |
| 20918 | Void is a kind of place, so it can't explain place [Aristotle] |
| 14043 | The void cannot interact, but just gives the possibility of motion [Epicurus] |
| 20822 | There is no void in the cosmos, but indefinite void outside it [Zeno of Citium, by Ps-Plutarch] |