[ox-en] A Crismas Lecture : Passport to Pimlico
- From: Adam Moran <adam diamat.org.uk>
- Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:11:43 +0000
A Crismas Lecture : Passport to Pimlico
=======================================
"The mystic invokes a rose, a kiss, a bird that is all birds,
a sun that is all the stars and the sun, a jug of wine,
a garden, a sexual act.
Of these metaphors,
none will serve me for that long joyous night,
which left us,
tired out and happy,
at the borders of dawn."
The author of the above quote is Jorge Luis Borges.
It is from his essay, *A New Refutation of Time*,
that I have borrowed liberally
in the following discourse.
In his thesis, Borges juxtaposes:
* Berkeley's idealism as continued by David Hume, and
* Leibniz's principal of indiscernibles
Borges argues that a refutation of time,
[ in which he himself does not believe, ]
is the inevitable consequence of their doctrine.
I make no such argument,
nor do I intend to speak of ideals.
Instead in this thesis, I intend to juxtapose:
* Aristotle's materialism as continued by Karl Marx, and
* Leibniz's principal of indiscernibles
as I sense a possible fortunate consequence
of their doctrine.
Have good cheer,
I have placed the theoretical physics at the end
of this lecture, and intend to begin with
a light-hearted text,
in fitting with the season.
Again, I have taken the form Borges uses
in *A New Refutation of Time*,
where he tells us he deliberately use analogous text
as he understands
it may facilitate the comprehension
of an indocile subject.
Phase 3
=======
Thirteen years ago, almost to the night,
someone left a message on my answer phone.
I took it, at first, to be a Christmas greeting.
It began as a drunken song,
followed by a lot of threatening sounding swear words.
Then the tears, then the regards and then a beep.
When I first heard it I giggled; I too was drunk,
although I suspect that I would have giggled in any case.
I had been out that night
on a pub crawl
designed by an engineer called David.
The design was issued as an A3 drawing
and had a reference number.
The drawing was a 1:1250 scale plan,
which highlighted the location of the Pubs.
Next to each Pub was drawn a clock icon,
which displayed the estimated time
of arrival of the crawl, at each location.
The plan had been delivered to me
three weeks earlier
with other drawings and a filing cabinet
full of specifications and other Contract documentation
at a car park in the City centre.
I was in legal possession of this car park
and had had erected there
site cabins as temporary accommodation.
The other correspondence concerned
the New Works I was to build
in the New Year.
Wow ...
What a job ...
So much to do,
so little time.
The night of the pub crawl was set
to mark the Christmas shut-down,
that is:
the last day of work for each of the many
Engineering sites scattered across the City,
before the vacation.
I was ready for a drink that night.
Although I thought my site had advanced well
in the previous three weeks,
none of the Contracting staff shared my opinion.
The initial Agent for the Contractor,
my opposite number, so to speak,
was at his wits-end by that date.
He was claiming that the Contract
was already severely behind programme,
and had sent me a claim for the delay.
He didn't like my stance:
"But I never accepted your programme.
In fact I rejected it
and asked for it to be resubmitted.
You have a further 2 weeks in which to do so."
"But you won't accept my programme.
It was accepted at the pre Contract meeting."
"I wasn't at the pre Contract
but I will be at the Arbitration
if it comes to that."
"I've heard that you never except programmes ?"
"I do if they are real,
as I am obliged to do
under the Contract.
But they are never real,
so I reject them
as I am obliged to do
under the Contract.
In any case,
yours is rejected
and you have a further two weeks
to resubmit.
Now,
If you don't mind,
I'd like to take a shower,
I'm going on a crawl."
That's how I left it with him
before the shut-down
He was replaced in the New Year
by his directors.
During my shower,
there was a banging on the cabin
and I heard a female voice calling for me.
It took me a few seconds
to shut off the noise in my head,
and I was only finally able to do so
when I remembered my name
wasn't 'Engineer'.
I had a black and green harlequin jumper at that time
and it reminded me of some dungarees I'd made for a mate
in what seemed like a different world.
Again came the banging at the cabin,
but this time it was name that was being called.
"Oh ... hi
Chrissy ?"
"You remembered me then"
Into the cabin came two women,
one a colleague
and the other
the women I had named but could not place.
"I didn't think you would remember me"
She smiled.
And that is when I remembered her.
I smiled too.
"Oh ... how's it going ?
You're lucking well."
My colleague's eyes rolled skywards and said:
"Before you two get started,
let me remind you
we've got just 10 minutes before we are due at Fagen's.
Can I make a coffee,
have you got milk ?"
"Yes and shoe polish.
Cherry red"
I replied
pointing to the highlighted notes
of a scheme plan
pinned to the wall.
"The Agent caved in on that issue today."
My colleague laughed and busied herself in the kitchen. She called:
"How's the dig going ?
What's your chainage ?"
"Zero.
I've not started the Permanent Works.
I've just finished trail-holing"
"Really ?
"It looks like Permanent Works
It's very extensive."
"I've had to be.
I've only just proved a route."
I began to fasten my shoe-laces
and returned my attention to Chrissy.
Her weight had changed since we had last met
But I fail to recall whether the change was
positive or negative in gross terms.
"You went through with it then ?" I inquired.
"Yeah" she nodded and smiled.
"I'll tell you all about it ...
if you like."
"You like ?" She continued to nod, and then held up
her ring finger
My colleague returned from the kitchen
"Well done.
Most of the cabins are covered in pornography these days.
And it's contrary to the Council's standing orders."
"I know." I replied
"I'm your new shop steward."
"Are you ?" replied my colleague.
"Well done.
What about those ?"
My colleague pointed to a tabloid newspaper open upon a plan chest.
"The standing order doesn't allow us to ban newspapers." I quipped.
"Well ...
"Why don't you put a suitable note
on the scheme drawings, after the note
which requires the Contractor to supply you
with milk and cheery red boot polish !"
My laugh was interrupted by a banging at the cabin window.
"Engineer ...
Engineer ...
Have you seen the Powder-Monkey
He said he wanted me.
He promised me a pony."
"You've missed him
He fucked off some time ago" I replied
"Fuck !
What am I'm going to do ?
Are you busy ?"
"Am always busy"
"Yeah ..." replied the women
I can see that !"
She said as she looked passed me at Chrissy.
"Oh ...
I think she's married " I said giggling
"Yeah ..." said the women
"I think I am too,
but where's that fucking Powder-Monkey"
All roads merge in a City on a night.
Live merges in a City on a night.
I'd fallen under the influence
of different council colleague
earlier that year.
I work with him still.
I'm sending this round-robin
to our info@ address also.
It seems to be accepted procedure amongst us
to copy folk in to our business affairs
when we have an issue, and we always have issues.
It amuses our Suppliers and Clients alike.
But I don't think that's its cause.
It's crunch time for us here again.
And yet it's always crunch time here.
This is what we do in our day jobs:
http://www.mkdoc.org/
http://www.mksearch.mkdoc.org/
We didn't start out as script writers
and we are not really now.
The founding partners were / are Architects
and got together
on an ad hoc basis
seven years ago
to do geeky stuff
and build accessible web sites
in their spare time.
I knew one of the Architects,
from our time at the City Council
We met through the trade union.
This is how it happened:
Some of my mates needed some cash
for a mercy mission to Romania
and I approached
my local shop stewards committees
with photos and a begging bowl.
My mate,
the Architect was there
as one of four shop stewards
representing the Architects
and looked at the photos with interest.
There were about another 5 stewards there too
representing roads
drainage, structure, bridges, heat & power.
The chief shop steward,
a nice old chap named Atkinson,
kindly told me the ins and outs
of the possible union procedures to get some cash,
and told me that in his opinion,
with the present union hierarchy,
we'd just be bagging us head against a wall.
My mate the Architect had spoken first,
but to be honest,
I found much of his speech incomprehensible.
He knew the union procedure inside out
but had coached the rejection in terms of
national, regional and local policy documents,
the relevant committees, with their relevant acronyms,
from which i would need approval,
their constitutional make-up,
both ideal and real.
And finally he let me have his stand
on the 50 quid I was trying to get,
which was this:
Ask the government for the money
not the trade unions.
Good point.
However as time was of the essence
how I actually chanced upon the money
was by a bloke I knew and his mate who
performed the spectacle of a crisp eating competition
in a pub on Hanging Water Road
with the landlord's consent
whilst i carried a collection bucket
and showed folk the photos.
We won 77 squid that night,
and I wasn't made to feel a beggar
and the landlord made it up to a hundred
which bought an air fair.
Any way, several years later
and after I had served a suitably long sentence
in the shop stewards committee,
were we jointly witnessed the whole sale degradation
of the terms and conditions of us, the producers,
coupled with large scale attacks on our pensions;
our economic futures:
I fell upon my mate the Architect in his house,
on long term sick leave,
were he had developed an expensive hardware habit
whilst making accessible web sites
and running up an enormous telephone bill.
I was on a pink-out too,
and I wanted a place to lodge,
so we made a deal
and I bought a licence on his attic room for 35 quid / week.
But I needed the place tidy for visitors
and I started to clean up,
First in the kitchen,
washing the pots and the surfaces
vacuuming the floor,
clearing away the empty boxes
that kind of thing.
And then to more personal stuff:
"What's in that box ?"
"Oh ... letters."
"Who's letters ?"
"Just letters."
"Arn't you going to open them ?"
"Later."
Later :
"I've sorted out that box of letters,
these piles are folk I know and I can pass them on.
Those piles there are to folk I don't know;
these piles are to organisations I've never heard off
but I can pass both lots on if you tell me where.
These letters are to webarchitects .
And that box there is to you"
"Oh ... pass me the ones to webarchitects,
oh ... there's money in these ones,
oh ... i think this cheque's out of date."
Later :
"Are you scanning that book in ?
Wow ... can I do that ?
I'll be careful with your kit"
"Erm ... I guess ... sit there."
Later :
"I've run the OCR and corrected the text files;
there on atomism.
I'll put the kettle on."
"Erm ... ok ... er cheers."
Later :
"So if I do the structural markup
you can do the CSS and SSI ?"
"Erm ... i guess so."
Later :
"For goodness sake,
we must charge out more than we spend.
How can we live unless we do that !"
And that's been the crunch time we've been in ever since.
But we now have these tools:
http://www.mkdoc.org/
http://www.mksearch.mkdoc.org/
and a real chance of a 300 k squid budget to take us to market,
so you'd think we'd be quids in.
But nothing is that simple around here:
"Erm ... Plone's better than MKDoc.
We should have GPL'ed from the very beginning.
That was always my stand.
We have failed,
and I have repeatedly told all of you
we would fail.
I don't want anything to do with MKSearch,
it's a useless toy compared to Google.
The crunch.
There's a hole in my pocket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
but to live in necessity is not a necessity.
Some people in our office think,
we sell web sites for a living,
and we should carry on the good work.
Whilst I tend to feel myself, like Mrs Hudson,
tidying up around Sherlock and Dr Watson.
I also eat crisps in front of
the Department of Trade and Industry,
who continue to fund us
because they want us to provide decent local employment.
We have to start thinking out side the box
and figure out how we want to live
the rest of our lives
and begin to live it.
My preference is to build tools,
but I need some cash to live on
and we need to score a pension
and I suspect if we could all just stop arguing
and with a wind in the right direction
we could all be better off
and potentially be working far less,
if at all,
at least as far as our daily bread is concerned.
But nothing is that simple around here.
But nothing's that simple any where.
A month ago I was in Pimlico at the Tate Britain.
An Open Congress,
It was very international in feel.
Folk of many movements,
both old and new, bumping off each other
in Brownian motion.
I jumped in at this young chap who is trying to start yet another.
He was slagging off Stallman and Lessig, and distinguishing his
licence, that isn't a licence, as the new way forward. The new
programme.
My question to him was this:
"Do you not know,
we have a constitutional stand-off in Europe over software patents ?
He wouldn't answer me. He asked me to put my and up and wait my turn.
I barked at him again, for good measure, and then walked away.
I passed a bloke wearing a Crombie and matching hat.
He nodded towards the young chap and said:
"He's a Stalinist"
I replied:
"He's academic"
Later, I found out from a colleague
that the bloke with the hat
had been the young chap's tutor the year before.
You will note,
the world is full of fucking geniuses,
they read a lot of good books,
but they do tend to live in a world of abstract universality.
Chrissy and I left the pub crawl after Fagen's
and we took our little party somewhere else for a bit.
We caught up with the main movement
at a Pub then labeled the Hornblower.
There I was accosted by my line manager
who coincidentally used to me my shop steward:
"How's it going ?
Have we got a root through ?"
"Yes,
It's tight, but isn't it always.
But I've finally got a route through.
You need to check it.
The Contract drawings are no more than a guide.
Just like the programme."
Telos
=====
"It hardly seems still possible to presume that these men,
who contradict each other on all points,
will adhere to one and the same doctrine.
And yet they seems to be chained to each other." - Karl Marx
I. The Sole of the Atom
-----------------------
Bayle, [18]
Supported by the authority of Augustine [19]
States that:
Democritus ascribed to the atom a spiritual principle:
the "soul of the atom",
[ and ] reproaches Epicurus
for having thought out the concept
of [ the ] declination
[ of the atom from the straight line ]
instead of [ adopting ] a spiritual [ ontology ].
Moreover Cicero, [15]
( and Several [ other ] ancient authors
according to Plutarch [16] ),
reproach Epicurus for saying
that the declination of the atom
occurs without cause.
"Nothing more disgraceful" says Cicero
"Can happen to a physicist". [17]
Cicero [ holds that the atom ]
is by no means complete
before it has been submitted
to the determination of declination,
[ and imagines the atom declining
within a determinystic inertial frame ].
But something Cicero [ missed ] entirely
in Epicurean physics [ is this: ]
It goes without saying that
the sensation of a particular determination
of the declination of the atom from the straight line
depends upon the domain,
[ the inertial frame ]
from which it is experienced.
Epicurus gives reality to the pure form-determination of the atom:
The concept of abstract individuality:
[ The ability to resist the fall ],
[ and he thereby negates ]
any mode of being determined by an other being.
[ It seems therefore
that abstract individuality
is the "soul" of an Epicurean atom ].
II. Necessity and Chance
------------------------
The differences between
[ Democritean and Epicurean physics may be ]
attributed to the accidental individuality
of these two [ thinkers ],
just as one would expect
a different theoretical consciousness
[ to exist in each and every thinking individual ].
[ But if ] we consider
the form of reflection
of these two [ tinkers ] in particular,
[ that is to say,
the labels they use ]
to express the relationship between
* their individual thought
* and the wide wide world
[ we sense that ]
these differences embody two distinct tendencies:
Democritus uses necessity as a form of reflection of reality. [30]
Aristotle says of him that he traces everything
back to necessity. [31]
Diogenes Laertius reports that the vortex of the atoms,
the origin of all
is the Democritean necessity. [32]
More satisfactory explanations
are given by the author of 'De Placitus Philosophurm':
Necessity is, according to Democritus,
fate and law,
providence and the creator of the world.
But the substance of this necessity is the anti-type
and the movement and the impulse of matter. [33]
In the 'Ethical Selections' of Stobaeus
the following aphorism of Democritus is preserved:
Human beings like to create for themselves
the illusion of chance.
A manifestation of their own perplexity,
since chance [ Zufall ] is incompatible with sound thinking. [36]
Contrast this with Epicurus:
It is a misfortune to live in necessity,
but to live in necessity is not a necessity.
On all sides many short and easy paths to freedom are open.
Necessity does not exist,
but is played up [ aufgeführt ] by some
as the absolute ruler.
Necessity that cannot be persuaded
can be subdued.
Some things are accidental
and thereby unstable.
Others depend on our arbitrary will. [40]
The form of reflection of reality used by Epicurus
is arbitrary will and unstable chance.
Democritus rejects this form of reflection
with polemical irritation.
The principal consequence of this difference
[ is sensed ] in the way that physical phenomena are explained:
If someone is thirsty and drinks and feels better,
Democritus will not assign chance as the cause, but thirst.
For, even though Democritus seems to use chance
in regard to the creation of the world
yet he maintains that chance is not
the cause of any particular event
but on the contrary leads back to other causes.
Thus for example digging is the cause of a treasure being found,
[ or the cause for which an olive tree was planted ]. [45]
Once again Epicurus stands directly opposed to Democritus:
Chance for Epicurus,
is a reality which has only the value of possibility.
Abstract possibility, however,
is the direct antipode of Real possibility.
Abstract possibility is unbounded, as is the imagination.
[ It is abstract universality. ]
Whereas Real possibility is restricted within sharp boundaries,
as is the intellect;
Abstract possibility is not interested
in the object, [ the other, ] which is to be explained,
but in the subject, [ the self, ] which does the explaining:
The other need only be possible, conceivable.
That which is abstractly possible,
that which can be conceived,
constitutes no obstacle to the thinking self
no limit, no stumbling block.
Whether this abstract possibility is also real is irrelevant,
since here the interest does not extend to [ the other ]
as [ an other ].
Whereas Real possibility seeks to explain the necessity
and reality of [ the other. ]
III. The Law of the Atom
------------------------
We now consider the consequences that follows directly from
the declination of the atom.
In this form of reflection,
is expressed the atom's negation of all motion and relation
by which it is being determined as a particular mode of being
by other beings.
This is represented in such a way
that the atom abstracts from the opposing beings
and withdraws itself from them.
But what is contained herein, namely,
its negation of all relation to something else,
must be realised
[ must be ] positively established.
This can only be done if
the being to which it relates
is none other than itself,
hence equally an atom,
and,
since it is directly determined,
many atoms.
And this [ determined existence ],
this relative existence,
[ in both the Democritean and Epicurean forms of reflection ]
is the original motion of the atoms,
[ namely ]
that of falling in a straight line:
[ In Epicurean physics ]
the repulsion of the many atoms
is the necessary realisation of the lex atomi,
that is "the law of the atom",
as Lucretius calls the declination.
Lucretius states:
If the atoms were not to decline,
neither their repulsion
nor their meeting
would have taken place,
and the world would never have been created. [28]
For atoms are their own sole object
and can only be related to themselves,
hence speaking in spatial terms,
they can only meet
because every relative existence of these atoms
by which they would be related to other beings
is negated. [29]
Hence [ in Epicurean refection ] the atoms meet
by virtue of their declination from the straight line.
And here,
the concept of the atom is realised in repulsion,
inasmuch as it is abstract form,
but no less also the opposite:
inasmuch as it is abstract matter;
for that to which it relates itself consists,
to be true is atoms,
but other atoms.
But when I relate to myself as myself
as to something else that is directly an other,
then my relationship is a material one.
[ This is an extreme conceptualisation of externality ]
In the repulsion of the atoms therefore
their materiality
which is posited in the fall in a straight line,
and in the form-determination,
which is established in the declination,
are united synthetically.
Democritus, in contrast to Epicurus,
transforms into an enforced motion,
in to an act of blind necessity,
that which to Epicurus is the realisation
of the concept of the atom.
Above we have noted that
Democritus considers the vortex
resulting from the repulsion
and the collision of the atoms
to be the substance of necessity.
He [ seems to sense ] in the repulsion
only the material side
the fragmentation
the change
and not the ideal side
according to which all relation to something else,
to an other,
is negated,
and motion is established as self-determination.
This can be [ sensed ] in that
he conceives one and the same body divided
through empty space
into many parts
quite sensuously,
like gold broke up into pieces. [30]
Thus he scarcely conceived of [ a unified ]
concept of the atom.
Aristotle argues against him:
Hence Leucippus and Democritus,
who assert that the primary bodies
always moved in the void
and the infinite
should say what kind of motion this is,
and what is the motion natural to them.
For each of the elements is forcibly moved by the other,
then it is still necessary
that each should have also a natural motion,
outside which is the enforced one.
And this first motion
must not be enforced but natural.
Otherwise the procedure goes on to infinity. [31]
The Epicurean declination of the atom thus
changed the whole inner structure of the atoms,
since through it
the form-determination is validated
and the contradiction inherent in the concept of the atom
is realised.
Epicurus was the first to grasp the essence of the repulsion
even if only in the sensuous form
whereas Democritus only knew its material existence.
We find also more concrete forms of repulsion applied by Epicurus:
In the political domain, there is the covenant. [32]
In the social domain, there is friendship,
which is praised as the highest good.
IV. Abstract Universality and Unfree Mysticism
----------------------------------------------
Repulsion is the first form of self-consciousness,
it corresponds to that self-consciousness
which conceives of itself as immediate being,
as abstractly individual.
But abstract individuality is freedom from being
not freedom in being.
It can not shine in the light of being.
This is an element [ that ] abstract individuality
loses [ in ] its character [ as it ] becomes material.
For this reason the atom does not enter into daylight of appearances
as the atom [ itself ]. [24]
[ It enters the world in and at its material base. ]
If abstract-individual self-consciousness
is posited as an absolute principle,
then, in deed,
all true and real science is done away with
inasmuch as individuality does not rule
within the nature of things themselves.
But then,
too, everything collapses
that is transcendentally related to human consciousness
and therefore belongs to the imaging mind.
On the other hand,
if that self-consciousness which knows itself
only in the form of abstract universality
is raised to an absolute principle,
then the door is opened wide to superstitious
and unfree mysticism.
Stoic philosophy provides the historic proof of this.
Abstract-universal self-consciousness has,
in deed,
the intrinsic urge to affirm itself in the things themselves
in which
it can only affirm itself
by negating them.
- Karlo Marx : Abridged Doctoral Thesis.
As an end note,
A quote and parody of both Borges, me myself and I:
Time is the substance I am made of
Time is the river which sweeps me along,
but I am the river; it is the lion that destroys me
but I am the lion; it is the thorn that pierces me
and I am the nightingale
The world, fortunately, is real;
I, in sickness and in health, am
--
Duncan Disorderly : Beep
¿De qué agreste balada de la verde Inglaterra,
de qué lámina persa, de qué región arcana
de las noches y días que nuestro ayer encierra,
vino la cierva blanca que soñé esta mañana?
Duraría un segundo. La vi cruzar el prado
y perderse en el oro de una tarde ilusoria,
leve criatura hecha de un poco de memoria
y de un poco de olvido, cierva de un solo lado.
Los númenes que rigen este curioso mundo
me dejaron soñarte pero no ser tu dueño;
tal vez en un recodo del porvenir profundo
te encontraré de nuevo, cierva blanca de un sueño.
Yo también soy un sueño fugitivo que dura
unos días más que el sueño del prado y la blancura.
La cierva blanca : Borges
Footnotes
=========
I. The Sole of the Atom
-----------------------
[18] Bayle : Dictionary historique et critique, art. Epicurus
[19] Augustine : Letter 56.
[15] Cicero : On Fate, x[22].
'Also he is compelled to profess a reality
if not quite explicitly,
that this swerve takes place without cause ...'
[16] Plutarch : On the Creation of the Soul, VI (VI, p.8, stereotyped
edition).
'For they do not agree with Epicurus
that the atom swerves somewhat,
since he introduces a motion without cause
out of the non-being.'
[17] Cicero : On the Highest Goods and Evils, I, vi[19].
'The swerving is itself an arbitrary fiction
(for Epicurus says the atoms swerve without cause,
yet this is a capital offence in a natural philosopher,
to speak of something taking place uncaused).
Then also he gratuitously deprives the atoms
of what he himself declared to be the natural motion
of all heavy bodies, namely,
movement in a straight line.'
II. Necessity and Chance
------------------------
[30] Cicero : On Fate, x[22,23].
'Epicurus [ thinks ] that the necessity of fate
can be avoided ...
Democritus preferred to accept the view
that all events are caused by necessity.'
[31] Aristotle : On the Generation of Animals, V, 8 [789b,2-3]
'Democritus ...
reduces to necessity all the operations of Nature.'
[32] Diogenes Laertius : IX, 45.
'All things happen by virtue of necessity,
the vortex being the cause of creation of all things,
and this he [ Democritus ] calls necessity.'
[33] Plutarch, On the Sentiments of the Philosophers, p. 252 [I, 25].
'Parmenides and Democritus [ say ]
that there is nothing in the world
but what is necessity,
and that this same necessity
is otherwise called fate, right, providence
and the creator of the world.'
[36] Stobaeus : Ethical Selections, II [4].
'Men like to create for themselves the illusion of chance
-- an excuse for their own perplexity;
since chance is incompatible with sound thinking.'
[40] Seneca : Epistle XII, p. 42
'Epicurus uttered these words:
It is wrong to live under necessity;
but no man is constrained to live under necessity ...
On all sides lie many short and simple paths to freedom.'
[45] Simplicius, 1.c., p.351
'... in deed, when somebody is thirsty,
he drinks cold water and feels fine again;
but Democritus will probably not accept
chance as the cause of this
but the thirst ...
for, even though he [ Democritus ] seems to use chance
in the creation of the world,
yet he maintains that the individual cause chance
is not a cause of anything,
but refers us back to other causes.
For instance the cause of a treasure trove
is the digging
or the planting of an olive tree.'
III. The Repulsion of the Atom
[28] Lucretius : On the Nature of Things, II, 221, 223-224
'If it were not for this swerve,
everything would fall downwards like rain-drops
through the abyss of space.
No collision would take place
and no impact of atom on atom
would be created.
Thus nature would never have created anything.'
[29] Lucretius : On the Nature of Things, II, 284-292
'So also in the atoms ...
besides weight and impact
there must be a third cause of movement,
the source of this inborn power of ours ...
But the fact that the mind itself has no internal necessity
to determine its every act
and compel it to suffer in helpless passivity -
this is due to the slight swerve of the atoms ...'
[30] Aristotle : On the Heavens, I, 7 [275b, 30-276a, 1].
'If the whole is not continuous,
but exists, as Democritus and Leucippus think,
in the form of parts separated by void,
there must necessarily be one movement of all the multitude.
... but their nature is one,
like many pieces of gold separated from one another.'
[31] Aristotle : On the Heavens, III, 2 [300b, 9-17].
'Hence Leucippus and Democritus,
who say that the primary bodies are in perpetual movement
in the void or the infinite,
may be asked to explain the manner of their motion
and the kind of movement which is natural to them.
For if the various elements are constrained
by one another to move as they do,
each must still have a natural movement
not by constraint but naturally.
If there is no ultimate cause of movement
and each proceeding term in the series
is always moved by constraint,
we shall have an infinite process.'
[32] Diogenes Laertius, X, 150.
'Those animals which are incapable
of making covenants with one another,
to the end that they may neither inflict nor suffer harm,
are without either justice or injustice.
And those tribes which either
could not
or would not
form mutual covenants
to the same end are in like case.
There never was absolute justice,
but only an agreement made
by reciprocal intercourse,
in whatever localities,
now and again,
from time to time,
providing against the infliction
or suffering of harm.'
IV. Abstract Universality and Unfree Mysticism
----------------------------------------------
[24] Lucretius, II, 796.
'... and the atoms do not emerge into the light ...'
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