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Single Idea 1505

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / e. The One ]

Full Idea

Since he is forced to be guided by appearances, he assumes that the one exists from the viewpoint of reason, but that a plurality exists from the viewpoint of the sense, and so he posits two principles and causes - hot and cold.

Gist of Idea

Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many

Source

comment on Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE], A24) by Aristotle - Metaphysics 986b27-

Book Ref

'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.62

A Reaction

A profound thought. Empiricists emphasies experience, and end up with fragmented reality. Reason explains experience, and in the process sees the world as unities (like objects), though a single unity is going too far.

The 20 ideas with the same theme [nature is really a single perfect object]:

1640 The basic Eleatic belief was that all things are one [Xenophanes, by Plato]
424 Reason tells us that all things are one [Heraclitus]
5081 There could be movement within one thing, as there is within water [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1509 The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing [Parmenides, by Simplicius]
20900 Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
226 The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides]
555 People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1505 Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many [Aristotle on Parmenides]
453 Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides]
21823 The principle of 'Friendship' in Empedocles is the One, and is bodiless [Empedocles, by Plotinus]
2062 The only movement possible for the One is in space or in alteration [Plato]
231 Everything partakes of the One in some way [Plato]
233 Some things do not partake of the One [Plato]
616 It doesn't explain the world to say it was originally all one. How did it acquire diversity? [Aristotle]
21814 How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus]
21815 Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light [Plotinus]
21816 Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One [Plotinus]
6406 Reality is one, because plurality implies relations, and they assert a superior unity [Bradley]
17692 We can't deduce the phenomena from the One [Armstrong]
12246 What makes Parmenidean reality a One rather than a Many? [Oderberg]