The Presocratic Philosophers by Barnes Jonathan

Author:Barnes, Jonathan. [JONATHAN BARNES]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published: 2011-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Simplicius says that Democritus took the ungenerability of time as self-evident (68 A 71); but what did that self-evident axiom prove? Did Democritus merely and trivially urge that since time is ungenerated, then at least one thing, viz. time, is ungenerated? or did he, more interestingly, urge that some substances at least must be ungenerated, since at any moment in time there must exist some substances, ‘empty’ time being an absurdity? The interesting argument is, alas, invalid; and in any case, neither the trivial nor the interesting version will show that all substances are ungenerated.

In the absence of a satisfying tradition we are tempted to invent; and an argument for substantial eternity can be cooked up: I shall postpone the concoction for a few pages.

Solid and eternal, Abderite substances are also immutable:

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