The Principles of an Existing Thing on Superphysics

Natural Versus Artificial

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Things can exist:

by nature, or
not by nature [i.e. man-made].

Examples of those that exist ‘by nature’ are:

the animals and their parts exist
the plants and the simple bodies (earth, fire, air, water)

We say that these and the like exist ‘by nature’. These are different from artificial.

How does the mathematician differ from the physicist?

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How does the mathematician differ from the physicist?

Physical bodies contain surfaces and volumes, lines and points. These are the subject-matter of mathematics.

What is the character and number of causes?

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What is the character and number of causes?

Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the ‘why’ of (which is to grasp its primary cause). So clearly we too must do this as regards both coming to be and passing away and every kind of physical change, in order that, knowing their principles, we may try to refer to these principles each of our problems.

Chance and Spontaneity

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Chance and spontaneity are reckoned among causes.

Many things exist and come to exist as a result of chance and spontaneity.

How are chance and spontaneity present among the causes enumerated?

Chance as the Cause

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Some things always come to pass in the same way, and others for the most part.

Of neither of these that chance is said to be the cause, nor can the ‘effect of chance’ be identified with any of the things that come to pass by necessity and always, or for the most part.

What is Spontaneity?

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

They differ in that ‘spontaneity’ is the wider term.

Every result of chance is from what is spontaneous, but not everything that is from what is spontaneous is from chance. Chance and what results from chance are appropriate to agents that are capable of good fortune and of moral action generally. Therefore necessarily chance is in the sphere of moral actions.

The Number of Causes

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The number of causes is the same as that of the things comprehended under the question ‘why’.

The ‘why’ is ultimately either:

In things which do not involve motion, e.g. in mathematics, to the ‘what’ (to the definition of ‘straight line’ or ‘commensurable’, &c.),

Nature means 2 Things

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I must explain:

Nature belongs to the class of causes which act for the sake of something
The necessary and its place in physical problems, for all writers ascribe things to this cause, arguing that since the hot and the cold, &c., are of such and such a kind, therefore certain things necessarily are and come to be-and if they mention any other cause (one his ‘friendship and strife’, another his ‘mind’), it is only to touch on it, and then good-bye to it.

A difficulty presents itself: why should not nature work, not for the sake of something, nor because it is better so, but just as the sky rains, not in order to make the corn grow, but of necessity?

What is ‘of necessity’?

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What is ‘of necessity’?

Is necessity ‘hypothetical’ or ‘simple’?

The current view places what is of necessity in the process of production, just as if one were to suppose that the wall of a house necessarily comes to be because what is heavy is naturally carried downwards and what is light to the top, wherefore the stones and foundations take the lowest place, with earth above because it is lighter, and wood at the top of all as being the lightest.