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Full Idea
We agree that nothing can be said without qualification to come from what is not, …but it may in a qualified sense. For a thing comes to be from a privation, which in its own nature is not-being - this not surviving as a constituent in the result.
Clarification
A 'privation' is an absence of something
Gist of Idea
Coming-to-be may be from nothing in a qualified way, as arising from an absence
Source
Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 191b13)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'The Basic Works of Aristotle', ed/tr. McKeon,Richard [Modern Library Classics 2001], p.234
A Reaction
Not sure I understand this, but it seems to say that genuine creation from nothing at all is impossible.
457 | Substance is not created or destroyed in mortals, but there is only mixing and exchange [Empedocles] |
16572 | Does the pure 'this' come to be, or the 'this-such', or 'so-great', or 'somewhere'? [Aristotle] |
16573 | Philosophers have worried about coming-to-be from nothing pre-existing [Aristotle] |
13214 | The substratum changing to a contrary is the material cause of coming-to-be [Aristotle] |
13215 | If a perceptible substratum persists, it is 'alteration'; coming-to-be is a complete change [Aristotle] |
16574 | Coming-to-be may be from nothing in a qualified way, as arising from an absence [Aristotle] |
16706 | Generation is when local motions aggregate to become a single subject [Nicholas of Autrecourt] |
18892 | Suppose a world where I'm from different gametes; add my gametes; which one is more me? [McGinn] |
16583 | Weak ex nihilo says it all comes from something; strong version says the old must partly endure [Pasnau] |