Kitap 13
1
As regards the objects of mathematics, then, the foregoing account may be taken as sufficient to show that they exist, and in what sense they exist, and in what sense they are prior and in what they are not. But as regards the Ideas we must first consider the actual theory in relation to the Idea, without connecting it in any way with the nature of numbers, but approaching it in the form in which it was originally propounded by the first exponentsIt seems quite obvious that Aristotle intends this vague phrase to refer to Plato. Cf. Aristot. Met. 1.6.1-3, with which the following sections 2-5 should be compared. On the whole subject see Introduction. of the Ideas.
2
The theory of Forms occurred to those who enunciated it because they were convinced as to the true nature of reality by the doctrine of Heraclitus, that all sensible things are always in a state of flux; so that if there is to be any knowledge or thought about anything, there must be certain other entities, besides sensible ones, which persist. For there can be no knowledge of that which is in flux.
