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Single Idea 484

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / c. Ultimate substances ]

Full Idea

It seems to me that all existing things are created by the alteration of the same thing, and are the same thing.

Gist of Idea

Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing

Source

Diogenes (Apoll) (fragments/reports [c.440 BCE], B02), quoted by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 151.31-

Book Ref

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.87


The 11 ideas with the same theme [proposals for one basic substance in nature]:

Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle]
Pherecydes said the first principle and element is earth [Pherecydes, by Sext.Empiricus]
For Anaximenes nature is air, which takes different forms by rarefaction and condensation [Anaximenes, by Simplicius]
Heraclitus said sometimes everything becomes fire [Heraclitus, by Aristotle]
Anaxagoras said that the number of principles was infinite [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
The ultimate constituents of reality are the homoeomeries [Anaxagoras, by Vlastos]
Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Air is divine, because it is in and around everything, and arranges everything [Diogenes of Apollonia]
There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle]
In nature there is just one infinite substance [Spinoza]
Newton's four fundamentals are: space, time, matter and force [Newton, by Russell]