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Single Idea 460

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements ]

Full Idea

Besides these elements, nothing else comes into being, nor does anything cease. For if they had been perishing continuously, they would Be no more; and what could increase the Whole? And whence could it have come?

Clarification

Proving that the one Being never changes

Gist of Idea

If the one Being ever diminishes it would no longer exist, and what could ever increase it?

Source

Empedocles (fragments/reports [c.453 BCE], B017), quoted by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 158.1-

Book Ref

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.54

The 22 ideas from Empedocles

5112 Empedocles says things are at rest, unless love unites them, or hatred splits them [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
13209 There is no coming-to-be of anything, but only mixing and separating [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
22765 Wisdom and thought are shared by all things [Empedocles]
552 Empedocles said good and evil were the basic principles [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
21823 The principle of 'Friendship' in Empedocles is the One, and is bodiless [Empedocles, by Plotinus]
2680 Empedocles said that there are four material elements, and two further creative elements [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
6002 Empedocles says bone is water, fire and earth in ratio 2:4:2 [Empedocles, by Inwood]
13207 Fire, Water, Air and Earth are elements, being simple as well as homoeomerous [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
13218 The elements combine in coming-to-be, but how do the elements themselves come-to-be? [Aristotle on Empedocles]
13225 Love and Strife only explain movement if their effects are distinctive [Aristotle on Empedocles]
1719 In Empedocles' theory God is ignorant because, unlike humans, he doesn't know one of the elements (strife) [Aristotle on Empedocles]
5090 Maybe bodies are designed by accident, and the creatures that don't work are destroyed [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
1524 For Empedocles thinking is almost identical to perception [Empedocles, by Theophrastus]
589 'Nature' is just a word invented by people [Empedocles]
457 Substance is not created or destroyed in mortals, but there is only mixing and exchange [Empedocles]
458 Nothing could come out of nothing, and existence could never completely cease [Empedocles]
460 If the one Being ever diminishes it would no longer exist, and what could ever increase it? [Empedocles]
459 All change is unity through love or division through hate [Empedocles]
461 God is a pure, solitary, and eternal sphere [Empedocles]
462 One vision is produced by both eyes [Empedocles]
1522 It is wretched not to want to think clearly about the gods [Empedocles]
466 God is pure mind permeating the universe [Empedocles]