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Single Idea 555

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

Full Idea

Those who assert that the universe is one and a single nature, when they try to give the causes of generation and destruction, miss out the cause of movement.

Gist of Idea

People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement

Source

comment on Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE]) by Aristotle - Metaphysics 988b

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.28


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

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