|
5112
|
Empedocles says things are at rest, unless love unites them, or hatred splits them [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
|
|
Full Idea:
Empedocles claims that things are alternately changing and at rest - that they are changing whenever love is creating a unity out of plurality, or hatred is creating plurality out of unity, and they are at rest in the times in between.
|
|
From:
report of Empedocles (fragments/reports [c.453 BCE]) by Aristotle - Physics 250b26
|
|
A reaction:
I suppose one must say that this an example of Ruskin's 'pathetic fallacy' - reading human emotions into the cosmos. Being constructive little creatures, we think goodness leads to construction. I'm afraid Empedocles is just wrong.
|
|
21673
|
There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Chrysippus, by Cicero]
|
|
Full Idea:
Chrysippus says there are two classes of facts, simple and complex. An instance of a simple fact is 'Socrates will die at a given date', ...but 'Milo will wrestle at Olympia' is a complex statement, because there can be no wrestling without an opponent.
|
|
From:
report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - On Fate ('De fato') 13.30
|
|
A reaction:
We might say that there are atomic and complex facts, but our atomic facts tend to be much simpler, usually just saying some object has some property.
|