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. Nor does any one conceive the matter correctly if he
compares the principles of the universe to that of animals and plants,
on the ground that the more complete always comes from the
indefinite and incomplete-which is what leads this thinker to say that
this is also true of the first principles of reality, so that the
One itself is not even an existing thing. This is incorrect, for
even in this world of animals and plants the principles from which
these come are complete; for it is a man that produces a man, and
the seed is not first.
It is out of place, also, to generate place simultaneously with
the mathematical solids (for place is peculiar to the individual
things, and hence they are separate in place; but mathematical objects
are nowhere), and to say that they must be somewhere, but not say what
kind of thing their place is.
Those who say that existing things come from elements and that the
first of existing things are the numbers, should have first
distinguished the senses in which one thing comes from another, and
then said in which sense number comes from its first principles.
By intermixture? But (1) not everything is capable of
intermixture, and (2) that which is produced by it is different from
its elements, and on this view the one will not remain separate or a
distinct entity; but they want it to be so.
By juxtaposition, like a syllable? But then (1) the elements
must have position; and (2) he who thinks of number will be able to
think of the unity and the plurality apart; number then will be this-a
unit and plurality, or the one and the unequal
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