Book 13
7
For if the matter is one, line, plane and solid will be the same; because the product of the same elements must be one and the same. If on the other hand there is more than one kind of matter—one of the line, another of the plane, and another of the solid—either the kinds are associated with each other, or they are not. Thus the same result will follow in this case also; for either the plane will not contain a line, or it will be a line.
8
Further, no attempt is made to explain how number can be generated from unity and plurality; but howsoever they account for this, they have to meet the same difficulties as those who generate number from unity and the indeterminate dyad. The one school generates number not from a particular plurality but from that which is universally predicated; the other from a particular plurality, but the first; for they hold that the dyad is the first plurality.Aristotle again identifies the indeterminate dyad with the number 2.
9
Thus there is practically no difference between the two views; the same difficulties will be involved with regard to mixture, position, blending, generation and the other similar modes of combination.sc. of the elements of number.
9
We might very well ask the further question: if each unit is one, of what it is composed; for clearly each unit is not absolute unity. It must be generated from absolute unity and either plurality or a part of plurality.
