Kitap 7
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We must consider whether (a) these are the only substances, or (b) these and some others, or (c) some of these, or (d) some of these and some others, or (e) none of these, but certain others. SomeThe Pythagoreans. hold that the bounds of body—i.e. the surface, line, point and unit—are substances, and in a truer sense than body or the solid.
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Again, someThe pre-Socratics. believe that there is nothing of this kind besides sensible things, while others believe in eternal entities more numerous and more real than sensible things. Thus Plato posited the Forms and the objects of mathematics as two kinds of substance, and as a third the substance of sensible bodies;
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and SpeusippusPlato’s nephew and successor as the head of the Academy. assumed still more kinds of substances, starting with the One, and positing principles for each kind: one for numbers, another for magnitudes, and then another for the soul. In this way he multiplies the kinds of substance. SomeThe followers of Xenocrates, successor to Speusippus. again hold that the Forms and numbers have the same nature, and that other things—lines and planes—are dependent upon them; and soon back to the substance of the visible universe and sensible things.
