Book 13
19
Again, how is it possible that 2 can be a definite entity existing besides the two units, and 3 besides the three units? Either by participation of the one in the other, as white man exists besides white and man, because it partakes of these concepts; or when the one is a differentia of the other, as man exists besides animal and two-footed.
20
Again, some things are one by contact, others by mixture, and others by position; but none of these alternatives can possibly apply to the units of which 2 and 3 consist. Just as two men do not constitute any one thing distinct from both of them, so it must be with the units.
21
The fact that the units are indivisible will make no difference; because points are indivisible also, but nevertheless a pair of points is not anything distinct from the two single points.
21
Moreover we must not fail to realize this: that on this theory it follows that 2’s are prior and posterior, and the other numbers similarly.
22
Let it be granted that the 2’s in 4 are contemporaneous; yet they are prior to those in 8, and just as the 〈determinate〉 2 produced the 2’s in 4, soIn each case the other factor is the indeterminate dyad (cf. sect. 18). they produced the 4’s in 8. Hence if the original 2 is an Idea, these 2’s will also be Ideas of a sort.
