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| Ecphantus; His Scepticism; Tenet of Infinity.
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Chapter
XIII.—Ecphantus; His Scepticism; Tenet of Infinity.
One Ecphantus, a native of Syracuse, affirmed that
it is not possible to attain a true knowledge of things. He
defines, however, as he thinks, primary bodies to be
indivisible,103
| 103 Some
confusion has crept into the text. The first clause of the second
sentence belongs probably to the first. The sense would then run
thus: “Ecphantus affirmed the impossibility of dogmatic
truth, for that every one was permitted to frame definitions as he
thought proper.” | and that there are
three variations of these, viz., bulk, figure, capacity,
from which are generated the objects of sense. But that there is
a determinable multitude of these, and that this is infinite.104
| 104 Or,
“that there is, according to this, a multitude of defined
existences, and that such is infinite.” | And that bodies are moved neither by
weight nor by impact, but by divine power, which he calls mind and
soul; and that of this the world is a representation; wherefore also it
has been made in the form of a sphere by divine power.105
| 105 Or, “a
single power.” | And that the earth in the middle of the
cosmical system is moved round its own centre towards the
east.106
| 106 [So far
anticipating modern science.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
