Kitap 14
21
But as for himSpeusippus. who does not hold this belief, because he can see the difficulties inherent in the Ideal theory (and so has not this reason for positing numbers), and yet posits mathematical number, what grounds have we for believing his statement that there is a number of this kind, and what good is this number to other things? He who maintains its existence does not claim that it is the cause of anything, but regards it as an independent entity; nor can we observe it to be the cause of anything; for the theorems of the arithmeticians will all apply equally well to sensible things, as we have said.Aristot. Met. 13.3.1.
1
Those, then, who posit the Ideas and identify them with numbers, by their assumption (in accordance with their method of abstracting each general term from its several concrete examples) that every general term is a unity, make some attempt to explain why number exists.I have followed Ross’s text and interpretation of this sentence. For the meaning cf. Aristot. Met. 14.2.20. Since, however, their arguments are neither necessarily true nor indeed possible, there is no justification on this ground for maintaining the existence of number.
