Ancient theories of substance based on a continuous view of matter are taken up in this chapter, which opens with an introductory section drawing a connection with the preceding discussion of the distributive condition. It prepares the ground for the analytic treatment of material from the history of philosophy. It also prepares the ground for the introduction of the thermodynamic treatment of stability, mixture and chemical reaction with a critique of purely mechanical conceptions of mixing and mixture. Ancient theories of substance based on a continuous view of matter bear some resemblance to modern, macroscopic conceptions and therefore have some interest as precursors of modern views as well as being of conceptual interest in their own right. Aristotle’s views of the matter were based on the fundamental tenet that a homogeneous quantity comprises a single substance, which, he combined with the thesis of the impossibility of cooccupancy (disputed by the Stoics). He distinguished four elements, characterised by properties they exhibit in isolation, which combine in one of two kinds of mixing process that he distinguished to yield other substances. It follows from his fundamental tenet that these derived substances have no parts that are elements. The elements are held to be potentially present in the sense that a suitable “decomposition” process would change the quantity into one that is partly the one element, partly another, and so on for the four elements. There are suggestions and problems associated with this account that are not developed or resolved in the extant texts, but some of the central ideas are clear enough and remain at issue in some related guise in modern chemical theory. The Stoics thought the elements are present in their compounds (blends), which might be thought to agree with the modern view. This led them to accept the possibility of coccupancy and claim that the elements occupy the same place as one another and the blend which they form (which doesn’t entail that an element occupies the same-sized region—of the same volume—when combined as when isolated). However, they failed, as far as I can see, to address the issue of giving a characterisation of the elements that is not only applicable when in isolation. The chapter closes with a discussion of the distinction between potential parts and potential qualities in connection with Holden’s recent book on the early modern discussion of the infinite divisibility of matter.

The Ancients’ Ideas of Substance

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2026年

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Paul Needham

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Ancient theories of substance based on a continuous view of matter are taken up in this chapter, which opens with an introductory section drawing a connection with the preceding discussion of the distributive condition. It prepares the ground for the analytic treatment of material from the history of philosophy. It also prepares the ground for the introduction of the thermodynamic treatment of stability, mixture and chemical reaction with a critique of purely mechanical conceptions of mixing and mixture. Ancient theories of substance based on a continuous view of matter bear some resemblance to modern, macroscopic conceptions and therefore have some interest as precursors of modern views as well as being of conceptual interest in their own right. Aristotle’s views of the matter were based on the fundamental tenet that a homogeneous quantity comprises a single substance, which, he combined with the thesis of the impossibility of cooccupancy (disputed by the Stoics). He distinguished four elements, characterised by properties they exhibit in isolation, which combine in one of two kinds of mixing process that he distinguished to yield other substances. It follows from his fundamental tenet that these derived substances have no parts that are elements. The elements are held to be potentially present in the sense that a suitable “decomposition” process would change the quantity into one that is partly the one element, partly another, and so on for the four elements. There are suggestions and problems associated with this account that are not developed or resolved in the extant texts, but some of the central ideas are clear enough and remain at issue in some related guise in modern chemical theory. The Stoics thought the elements are present in their compounds (blends), which might be thought to agree with the modern view. This led them to accept the possibility of coccupancy and claim that the elements occupy the same place as one another and the blend which they form (which doesn’t entail that an element occupies the same-sized region—of the same volume—when combined as when isolated). However, they failed, as far as I can see, to address the issue of giving a characterisation of the elements that is not only applicable when in isolation. The chapter closes with a discussion of the distinction between potential parts and potential qualities in connection with Holden’s recent book on the early modern discussion of the infinite divisibility of matter.