ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

devoid of all scientific basis in itself ;
METAPHYSICS 315
that it leads in its
results to difficulties and contradictions absolutely insoluble,
and that instead of explaining the world of
phenomena, it makes them impossible.
He holds that the hypothesis of the Ideas is not
established ; of the Platonic arguments for it, there is
not one that is not open to decisive objections. 1 The
ends that Plato sought thereby to attain are and must
be attainable otherwise. The content of each of these
Ideas is, indeed, exactly the same as the corresponding
thing of which it is said to be ' the Idea ; ' for in the
conception of the ideal man, of man as such, exactly the
same marks are included as in the conception of man in
the ordinary sense, there being no difference between
the two beyond the addition of the word ' ideal ' (to
avro). 2
In this view, the Ideas appear as nothing more
than a needless reduplication of the world of things,
and the introduction of the Ideas to explain things is
to Aristotle as if a man who could not count in
small
numbers should attempt to count in large ones. 3 But
even
apart from the failure of proof, the Ideal Theory
is in his view in itself untenable ;
1
for Substance cannot
Cf. Metaph. i. 9, 990, b, 8 yap eKeivoi ovdev &\\o ino'ovv, %
sqq. xiii. 4, 1079, a. avBpdirovs aibiovs, oS6' ovroi to tlSii
2
Metaph. iii. 2, 997, b, 5 : a.x\' % aitrdirra aiSia. Similarly
iroWaxv s ' 1x6'''-' Sv(TKo\lav, Metapli. vii. 16, 1040, b, 32:
ovBevbs ?ittov &tottov rb tpdvat fiev ttoiovo'li' oZv [ras ideas] txs avras
eival Ttvas (pfoeis irapa ras eV tm t$ eXSei tois (pdapro'is, a : jTodv8punrov
oupavu>, Tavras 5e ras auras (pdi/aL Kal aiirdiinrov, irpocrrtdevrts to?s
Tins alffBijTo'is irXfy in to. fiev aicrdTjTo7s rb pf/^ta rb avrb. Ibid.
aiSia. to 5i (pBaprd • abrb yap av- xiii. 9, 1086, b, 10 of. Eth. N. i.
8p