Kitap 1
20
Further, it becomes necessary to set up another kind of number (with which calculation deals), and all the objects which are called intermediate by some thinkers.Cf. vi. 4. But how or from what principles can these be derived? or on what grounds are they to be considered intermediate between things here and Ideal numbers? Further, each of the units in the number 2 comes from a prior 2; but this is impossible.i.e., if 2 is derived from a prior 2 (the Indeterminate Dyad; Aristotle always regards this as a number 2), and at the same time consists of two units or 1s, 2 will be prior both to itself and to 1.
21
Further, why should a number 〈of units〉, taken together, be one thing? And further, in addition to the above objections, if the units are unlike, they should be treated as the thinkers who assume two or four elements treat those elements; for not one of them applies the term element to the common substrate, e.g. body, but to fire and earth—whether there is a common substrate (i.e. body) or not.In the Aristot. De Gen. et Corr. 320b 23Aristotle says that there is not.
22
As it is, the One is spoken of as though it were homogeneous, like fire or water. But if this is so, the numbers will not be substances. And if there is an absolute One which is a principle, clearly the term one is ambiguous; otherwise this is impossible.This last sentence shows that in what goes before A. has been regarding the Platonic One as a unit. If this is so, he says, substance cannot be composed of it. If on the other hand the One is something different from the unit, they ought to make this clear.
