Kitap 13
8
with which of these, then, will the mathematical sciences deal? Not, surely, with the planes, lines and points in the immovable solid; for knowledge is always concerned with that which is prior. And the same argument applies to numbers; for there will be other units besides each class of points, and besides each class of existing things, first the sensible and then the intelligible; so that there will be an infinite number of kinds of mathematical numbers.
9
Again, there are the problems which we enumerated in our discussion of difficultiesAristot. Met. 3.2.23-27.: how can they be solved? For the objects of astronomy will similarly be distinct from sensible things, and so will those of geometry; but how can a heaven and its parts (or anything else which has motion) exist apart from the sensible heaven? And similarly the objects of optics and of harmonics will be distinct, for there will be sound and sight apart from the sensible and particular objects.
10
Hence clearly the other senses and objects of sense will exist separately; for why should one class of objects do so rather than another? And if this is so, animals too will exist separately, inasmuch as the senses will.
10
Again, there are certain general mathematical theorems which are not restricted to these substances.
