more on this theme     |     more from this thinker


Single Idea 486

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements ]

Full Idea

No plant could grow out of the earth, and no animal or any other thing could come into being, unless it were so compounded as to be the same.

Gist of Idea

Plants and animals can only come into existence if something fixes their species

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 10 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

Diogenes of Apollonia offered the first teleological account of cosmology [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Robinson,TM]
Diogenes of Apollonia was the last natural scientist [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Simplicius]
Perception must be an internal matter, because we can fail to perceive when we are preoccupied [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Theophrastus]
Start a thesis with something undisputable [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Plants and animals can only come into existence if something fixes their species [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Things must retain their essential nature during change, or mixing would be impossible [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Each thing must be in some way unique [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Air is divine, because it is in and around everything, and arranges everything [Diogenes of Apollonia]
The older Diogenes said the soul is air, made of the smallest particles [Diogenes of Apollonia]