Book 14
5
For according to some,Plato; cf. Aristot. Met. 13.7.5. numbers are generated from the unequal dyad of the Great and Small; and according to another,Probably Speusippus. from plurality; but in both cases they are generated by the essence of unity. For he who speaks of the unequal and Unity as elements, and describes the unequal as a dyad composed of Great and Small, speaks of the unequal, i.e. the Great and Small, as being one; and does not draw the distinction that they are one in formula but not in number.This shows clearly that by the Great-and Small Plato meant a single principle, i.e., indeterminate quantity. Aristotle admits this here because he is contrasting the Great-and Small with the One; but elsewhere he prefers to regard the Platonic material principle as a duality. See Introduction.
6
Again, they state the first principles, which they call elements, badly; some say that the Great and the Small, together with Unity (making 3Cf. previous note. in all), are the elements of numbers; the two former as matter, and Unity as form. Others speak of the Many and Few, because the Great and the Small are in their nature more suited to be the principles of magnitude; and others use the more general term which covers these—the exceeding and the exceeded.
7
But none of these variations makes any appreciable difference with respect to some of the consequences of the theory; they only affect the abstract difficulties, which these thinkers escape because the proofs which they themselves employ are abstract.
8
There is, however, this exception: if the exceeding and the exceeded are the first principles, and not the Great and the Small, on the same principle number should be derived from the elements before 2 is derived; for as the exceeding and the exceeded is more universal than the Great and Small, so number is more universal than 2. But in point of fact they assert the one and not the other.
8
Others oppose the different or other to Unity; and others contrast Plurality and Unity.
