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Aristotle - Metaphysics
Atec Февраль 16 2008 19:57:08
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A difficulty, and a reproach to any one who finds it no
difficulty, are contained in the question how the elements and the
principles are related to the good and the beautiful; the difficulty
is this, whether any of the elements is such a thing as we mean by the
good itself and the best, or this is not so, but these are later in
origin than the elements. The theologians seem to agree with some
thinkers of the present day, who answer the question in the
negative, and say that both the good and the beautiful appear in the
nature of things only when that nature has made some progress. (This
they do to avoid a real objection which confronts those who say, as
some do, that the one is a first principle. The objection arises not
from their ascribing goodness to the first principle as an
attribute, but from their making the one a principle-and a principle
in the sense of an element-and generating number from the one.) The
old poets agree with this inasmuch as they say that not those who
are first in time, e.g. Night and Heaven or Chaos or Ocean, reign
and rule, but Zeus. These poets, however, are led to speak thus only
because they think of the rulers of the world as changing; for those
of them who combine the two characters in that they do not use
mythical language throughout, e.g. Pherecydes and some others, make
the original generating agent the Best, and so do the Magi, and some
of the later sages also, e
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