Page 379

Alexandr Korol
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Page 379

Post by Alexandr Korol »

but his detailed and systematic analysis of nature in his works is remarkably innovative. The second subject of investigation is the supralunar world, formed by the multitude of celestial bodies (the firmament of fixed stars and the spheres of various planets). Its space generally coincides with the domain of astronomy. Here, circular motion prevails. The specific element of this world is what Aristotle calls Aether — a divine element, ungenerated, indestructible, and unchanging (long referred to as the “quintessence,” as it is the fifth element, distinct from the other four). The study of the supralunar world is the focus of the first two books of the treatise On the Heavens. The divine itself is the subject of first philosophy, which also studies first principles and being as such: “if there is anything divine, it must possess such {separate and unmoving} nature... and the noblest knowledge (first philosophy) must have as its subject the noblest kind .” Aristotle also notes that there is a change with respect to substance. It consists in coming-to-be and passing-away, in birth and death. This assertion poses a particular problem. Since substance does not admit opposites of generation or transition from being to being, it cannot be motion in the strict sense of the word.” It’s difficult for me because, you see, this is someone else’s way of thinking. I mean, of course I highlight things for myself, but I can’t decipher what was meant in this article. I do pick out certain points, like the supralunar world, the sublunar world, the familiar elements, the mobile and immobile, the world of ether — but not beyond that. The dry-wet part is still okay, it’s often found in alchemy, among alchemists there were methods of transforming all this — or rather, qualities. Qualities meaning that each element has its own property: dry, wet, solid, liquid, or something else — that’s all clear. Well, all right, let’s keep looking.

Here again in the Wikipedia article, Aristotle is mentioned. There’s an interesting point that “Empedocles created the doctrine of four elements — water, earth, fire, and air. Aristotle added to them a fifth, most subtle element — ether, which he contrasted with the other four. The four elements, from which the entire sublunar world is composed, move vertically and horizontally and can transform into one another. The celestial bodies, which are located in the cosmic spheres at the level of the Moon and above (the supralunar world), consist of ether, which is eternal, does not transform into other elements,