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Single Idea 16595

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 2. Eternal Universe ]

Full Idea

If some one of the things 'which are' is constantly disappearing, why has not the whole of 'what is' been used up long ago and vanished away - assuming of course that the material of all the several comings-to-be was infinite?

Gist of Idea

If each thing can cease to be, why hasn't absolutely everything ceased to be long ago?

Source

Aristotle (Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr) [c.335 BCE], 318a17)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'The Basic Works of Aristotle', ed/tr. McKeon,Richard [Modern Library Classics 2001], p.480

A Reaction

This thought is the basis of Aquinas's Third Way for proving the existence of God (as the force which prevents the vicissitudes of nature from sliding into oblivion).

Related Ideas

Idea 14029 If disappearing things went to nothingness, nothing could return, and it would all be gone by now [Epicurus]

The 25 ideas from 'Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr)'

21360 Unobservant thinkers tend to dogmatise using insufficient facts [Aristotle]
13210 Wood is potentially divided through and through, so what is there in the wood besides the division? [Aristotle]
13211 If a body is endlessly divided, is it reduced to nothing - then reassembled from nothing? [Aristotle]
16100 True change is in a thing's logos or its matter, not in its qualities [Aristotle]
16101 A change in qualities is mere alteration, not true change [Aristotle]
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]
16595 If each thing can cease to be, why hasn't absolutely everything ceased to be long ago? [Aristotle]
13212 Infinity is only potential, never actual [Aristotle]
13213 All comings-to-be are passings-away, and vice versa [Aristotle]
13214 The substratum changing to a contrary is the material cause of coming-to-be [Aristotle]
12133 If the substratum persists, it is 'alteration'; if it doesn't, it is 'coming-to-be' or 'passing-away' [Aristotle]
13215 If a perceptible substratum persists, it is 'alteration'; coming-to-be is a complete change [Aristotle]
12134 Matter is the substratum, which supports both coming-to-be and alteration [Aristotle]
13216 Matter is the limit of points and lines, and must always have quality and form [Aristotle]
13220 Bodies are endlessly divisible [Aristotle]
13221 Existence is either potential or actual [Aristotle]
17994 The primary matter is the substratum for the contraries like hot and cold [Aristotle]
16717 Which of the contrary features of a body are basic to it? [Aristotle]
16594 The Four Elements must change into one another, or else alteration is impossible [Aristotle]
13223 Fire is hot and dry; Air is hot and moist; Water is cold and moist; Earth is cold and dry [Aristotle]
13224 There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle]
13226 An Order controls all things [Aristotle]
13227 Being is better than not-being [Aristotle]
13228 There is no time without movement [Aristotle]