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Single Idea 16574

[catalogued under 9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 10. Beginning of an Object]

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 Reference

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.