Kitap 1
21
And further, assuming that it be granted to them or proved by them that magnitudeAristotle uses the word μέγεθος both of magnitude in general and of spatial magnitude or extension. Here the meaning seems to be the former. Numbers obviously have magnitude, and might be regarded as causing it; but (except on the Number-Atomism theory,) they are no more the cause of extension than that of gravity. is composed of these factors, yet how is it to be explained that some bodies are light, and others have weight? For in their premisses and statements they are speaking just as much about sensible as about mathematical objects; and this is why they have made no mention of fire or earth or other similar bodies, because, I presume, they have no separate explanation of sensible things.
22
Again, how are we to understand that number and the modifications of number are the causes of all being and generation, both in the beginning and now, and at the same time that there is no other number than the number of which the universe is composed?i.e., how can number be both reality and the cause of reality?
