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

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WYSICS 435
would be equally impossible, on the hypothesis of
infinite vacuity, to assign any reason for rest in
Nature. Again, if bodies fall or rise with a rapidity
proportioned to the rarity of the medium through
which they are moving, everything would have to
or rise with infinite rapidity through the infinite
fall
rarity.
of the void. On the other hand, if, ceteris paribus,
greater masses fall or rise quicker than smaller ones
because they more easily overcome the withstanding
medium, then in the void, where there is no resistance to
overcome, the smallest would move as quickly as the
greatest. Lastly, how are we to conceive that an
empty space exists beyond the space occupied by bodies,
since, if a body entered that space, there would then be
two spaces, an empty and a full, the one within the
other ? And what is the use of such a void space,
since every body has its own extension ? l Besides, by
maintaining that there is empty space or any space at all
beyond the world, one would end in the contradiction
of asserting that a body could be where no body can. 2
If empty Space is impossible, empty Time, filled with
no movement, is equally inconceivable, since Time is
nothing but the number of motion. 3
Aristotle, in fact,
maintains the eternity of motion as having neither be-
1
Phys. iv. 8 ; cf . De CceVi, iv. icevbv ovSe xp6vos zotIv £|o) tou
2. In estimating the force of ovpavov' iv airavrtykp rfatp Svvathese
arguments we must, of t6v virdp^at au/ia- icsvbv $' ehai
course, take account of the state (paaiv iv $ f.^1 ivvwdpx^ (ra>fia,
of scientific knowledge at the tiwarbv 5' ian\ yevfodai ££«
time, and of the presuppositions Be tou oipavov Sc'Seiktou oti o6t'
which were shared by Aristotle iarui oSt' iviix* yevctrBai trafia.
3
and the Atomists alike. 8ee Phys. viii. 1, 251, b, 10: rb
p. 442, infra. irp6Tepov leal 'ia-rtpov iris IVtoi
Hvtos; f) i xp^vos fi.ii
2
De Ccelo, i. 9, 279, a, 11 : XP^V0V M
SjUa Se BtjKov 8ti oitSe r6iros oi/de o$ffi\s Ktvfoetos; ei S-fj itrriv 6
FF 2
43C
ginning nor end. 1
ARISTOTLE
On this point he suggests the remarkable
question : whether there could be Time without a
soul ? And ho answers it by saying that Time in its essence
is implicit in motion, but that in reality it cannot be
without the soul, because number does not exist without
a calculator, and reason is the only calculator. 2 But we
should make a mistake if we sought to discover in this
remark any inclination to the idealist theory of Time
which has obtained so vast a.n importance in modern
philosophy. Its apparent bias towards Idealism proceeds
from Aristotle's not conceiving the ideas of Time
and Space in as pure and abstract a sense as is familiar
to us. Although he does not go so far as Plato, who
identified Space with extended substance, and Time
with the motion of the stars, 3 yet he never attempts to
make an accurate distinction between Space and Time
Xpivos Kiv},treus apiS/ibs % nirnir's of its existence; v. TOBSTKIK in
•ns, elnep del xP^vos ^tIi/, avar/Ki] S,h. Mm. xii. 1857, p. ltil sqq.],
Kal KivTjfftv a'tbuv elva.1. Ibid. 1. olotf ei evSexercu KlvTjffiv eli/at &vev
26 : avir/Ki] . . eivat oe! xP& vov -
^ VX^ S - Aristotle is not quite
a\\a fity elye xp^vov avepbv Sri consistent in his
i
answers to the
avdyxri etvai Kal Kirqaiv, eiirep & question, what faculty of the soul
Xpivos irddos ti Kivfoeus. De Ccolo, it is that perceives time. Accordi.
9. 279, a, 14 : outside the ing to the above passage and Dr.
world there is no lime, for XP^ V0S An.iii. 10, 433, b, 5 sqq., we must
apiS/ibs Kii/^o-eais- Kivqcrts 5' avtv suppose that it is the reason, and
(pviriKov ffdtfiaros ovk %ffnv. Cf. p. that the sense of time is limited
395, n. fi, supra. to rational beings. In the De
1
See p. 387, swprn. Mem. i. 450, a. 9-23, on the other
2
Pliys. iv. 14, 223, a, lfi sqq. hand, he assigns it to the TpuTow
esp.l. 25: « Si ,u?j5ej/ &\\o mtyvxev aiVflTjTiKiv.andattributes memory,
apidfuXv ti