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Full Idea
The void can neither act nor be acted upon but merely provides the possibility of motion through itself for bodies.
Gist of Idea
The void cannot interact, but just gives the possibility of motion
Source
Epicurus (Letter to Herodotus [c.293 BCE], 67)
Book Ref
Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.14
A Reaction
Epicurus follows this with the anti-dualist Idea 14042, but he is at least offering the notion of something which exists without powers of causal interaction. Does space undermine the causal criterion for existence?
Related Ideas
Idea 14042 The soul cannot be incorporeal, because then it could neither act nor be acted upon [Epicurus]
Idea 5992 Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Chrysippus, by Tieleman]
Idea 3534 To be is to have causal powers [Alexander,S]
| 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] |