Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

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the shadow for it. But, as you see, all these difficulties arise for the manwho has not understood that production is the conversion of a thing frompotential into actual existence, and that destruction is the reverse, i.e. thechange from the actual into the potentials It appears from this thatpossibility and matter are necessarily connected with anything becoming,and that what is subsistent in itself can be neither destroyed nor produced.The theory of the Ash’arites mentioned here by Ghazali, which regardsthe production of a substance, subsistent in itself, as possible, but not soits destruction, is an extremely weak one, for the consequences whichapply to destruction apply also to production, only, it was thought, becausein the former case it is more obvious that there was here a real difference.He then mentions the answers of the different sects to the difficulty whichfaces them on the question of annihilation.Ghazali says:The Mu’tazilites say: the act proceeding from Him is anexistent, i.e. extinction, which He does not create in asubstratum; at one and the same moment it annihilates thewhole world and disappears by itself, so that it does notstand in need of another extinction and thus of an infiniteregress.And mentioning this answer to the difficulty, he says:This is wrong for different reasons. First, extinction is notan intelligible existent, the creation of which can besupposed. Moreover, why, if it is supposed to exist, does itdisappear by itself without a cause for its disappearance?Further, why does it annihilate the world? For its creationand inherence in the essence of the world are impossible,since the inherent meets its substratum and exists togetherwith it if only in an instant; if the extinction and existence ofthe world could meet, extinction would not be in opposition toexistence and would not annihilate it’ and, if extinction iscreated neither in the world nor in a substratum, where couldits existence be in order to be opposed to the existence ofthe world? Another shocking feature in this doctrine is thatGod cannot annihilate part of the world without annihilating126
I say:the remainder; indeed He can only create an extinctionwhich annihilates the world in its totality, for if extinction isnot in a substratum, it stands in one and the same relation tothe totality of the world.The answer is too foolish to merit refutation. Extinction and annihilationare synonymous, and if God cannot create annihilation,He cannot create extinction either. And even if we suppose extinction tobe an existent, it could at most be an accident, but an accident without asubstratum is absurd. And how can one imagine that the non-existentcauses non-existence? All this resembles the talk of the delirious.Ghazali says:I say:The second sect, the Karramites, say that the act of Godis annihilation, and annihilation signifies an existent whichHe produces in His essence and through which the worldbecomes non-existent. In the same way, according to them,existence arises out of the act of creation which He producesin His essence and through which the world becomesexistent. Once again, this theory is wrong as it makes theEternal a substratum for temporal production . Further it isincomprehensible, for creation and likewise annihilationcannot be understood except as an existence, related to willand power, and to establish another entity besides the willand the power and their object, the world, is inconceivable.The Karramites believe that there are here three factors: the agent, theact-which they call creation-and an object, i.e. that to which the actattaches itself, and likewise they believe that in the process of annihilationthere are three factors: the annihilator, the act-which they call annihilationanda non-existent. They believe that the act inheres in the essence of theagent and according to them the rise of such a new condition’ in the agentdoes not imply that the agent is determined by a temporal cause, for sucha condition is of a relative and proportional type, and a new relation andproportion does not involve newness in the substratum; only those new127
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TAHAFUT AL-TAHAFUT(The Incoherence
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THE FOURTEENTH DISCUSSION: To refut
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occupies the central place in the u
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commentator of Plato and Aristotle,
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and Physics, have left the religion
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gives the philosophical arguments a
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eternity of the world. Plato himsel
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it is God who is passive; the impel
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of events out of time is like the u
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God everything is possible, a theor
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by the philosophers, of the emanati
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God possesses self-consciousness).
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and is found in Thomas Aquinas and
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He himself does not affirm that the
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is immortal when he will see in him
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For the unphilosophical, however, t
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Concerning the Eternity of the Worl
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for both agents, i.e. so far as the
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an agent endowed with a power which
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I say:analogous to our decision, it
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I sayinadmissible and that to admit
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I say:sun performs in twenty-four h
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possible, not necessary, and he wou
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valid so far as it concerns externa
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do not know of any one who makes a
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sophistical arguments is dishonest,
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say that the age of the world is a
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I say:that two blacks in two substr
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I say:inside the world, neither con
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similar things, a will which distin
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whereas the globe of heaven is homo
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constitute the poles. But the diffe
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move itself in space, in a definite
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deeds?’ May God make us perspicac
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seeing are equivalent in the eye. T
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would be no possibility of their av
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through the medium of a being etern
Page 75 and 76: This argument is sophistical. The t
Page 77 and 78: and with Him there was the world an
Page 79 and 80: I say:If we should say, for instanc
Page 81 and 82: The primitive meaning of the two wo
Page 83 and 84: of the fact that motion inheres nec
Page 85 and 86: and then assumes a time which has n
Page 87 and 88: I say:and places of the world. The
Page 89 and 90: I say:eternal. So much as far as bo
Page 91 and 92: I say:which doubles the whole of th
Page 93 and 94: I say:world smaller than He has cre
Page 95 and 96: I say:possible that the world might
Page 97 and 98: I say:and possible at another?’ I
Page 99 and 100: pronounce for one of these opposite
Page 101 and 102: I say:existence whether earlier or
Page 103 and 104: I say:and needs something to which
Page 105 and 106: I sayThe second proof is that the i
Page 107 and 108: I say:essence nor matter’ and the
Page 109 and 110: I sayalthough it is not impressed o
Page 111 and 112: Ghazali says:I say:As regards their
Page 113 and 114: I say:He wants to force those who a
Page 115 and 116: all his books this is most clearly
Page 117 and 118: extension is nothing but time, and
Page 119 and 120: concedes the existence of an entity
Page 121 and 122: I say:connected with another condit
Page 123 and 124: so only through the corruption and
Page 125: that it passes into a relative non-
Page 129 and 130: This theory of the flux of all exis
Page 131 and 132: moments is constant, and how can wh
Page 133 and 134: I say:which has a reasonable sense,
Page 135 and 136: things are two: matter and form, an
Page 137 and 138: I say:an imposture where their prin
Page 139 and 140: I say:says that the lamp makes the
Page 141 and 142: anterior to it. If God therefore is
Page 143 and 144: it tends and has an inclination to
Page 145 and 146: and to exclude the metaphorical sen
Page 147 and 148: Ghazali says, answering in defence
Page 149 and 150: I say:connected with Him, since the
Page 151 and 152: from it, it exists, not when the th
Page 153 and 154: All this is true. The act of the ag
Page 155 and 156: of the water, for this happens afte
Page 157 and 158: existence of the celestial bodies o
Page 159 and 160: I say:We answer: The consequence of
Page 161 and 162: one occurred, they gave three answe
Page 163 and 164: is partly the cause of unity, partl
Page 165 and 166: I say:is therefore nineteen; and th
Page 167 and 168: each other is a theory not known am
Page 169 and 170: defined acts can only arise from be
Page 171 and 172: and earth that he should be of thos
Page 173 and 174: I say:another be identical?’ we a
Page 175 and 176: the universal, the other specific d
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similar follows concerning the nece
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I say:for this it really is. But th
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I say:from His way and deviate from
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We say:The philosophers tried to ac
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bodies prior to them. Thus they wer
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thinks only its own essence, and th
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suppose its agent to act like an ag
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draw this conclusion. For if the pr
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And that one and the same existent
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unique mover . And just as the remo
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a plurality of existents without a
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In this discussion of the intellect
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I say:The meaning of this statement
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I say:is the principle of these dif
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the possible nature cannot become n
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I say:a cause, what makes it imposs
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qualitative, or in whichsoever of t
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But if one should say to us: ‘Cer
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receive a stronger degree of assent
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as the differences depend on differ
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moment from its action, the world w
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And as to Ghazali's words:It is eas
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However, it is not possible that th
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without an initial term; and if you
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I say:The difference between these
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I say:cause, but not of the series
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I say:If it is objected that this m
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or non-eternity of the world, and w
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THE FIFTH DISCUSSIONTO SHOW THEIR I
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I say:colour because of a cause whi
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black must be a colour either by bl
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I say:The answer is that we concede
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I say:composed of genus and species
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necessary existent, and this is imp
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For man before his existence has a
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and it is thus their task to refer
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identical with the knower of the sh
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And when it is said that He is gene
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I say:separate from matter is possi
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exist both an essence and attribute
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by themselves, just as, if their ex
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If it is answered that the absolute
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I say:need a subject, as is the cas
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I say:If it is said: In the same wa
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would have to exist by itself, and
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essence is not true, for every esse
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Composition is not like existence,
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All their proofs where this problem
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consciousness itself is denied. But
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things, and our intellect, therefor
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I say:both, for the plurality and t
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be a knowledge in act and that ther
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It may be said that if it is assert
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And as to the affirmation of the ph
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two existents which differ in an ex
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Ghazali says:It may be said, `This
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I say:beings should exist by themse
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because they found that the acciden
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And as to the term `substance’ wh
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I say:black and white, fourness and
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I say:constitution of the essence o
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principle which is the cause of tha
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Gods would have to be separated by
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distinguished by the fact that one
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one of these natures is superior to
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Ghazali opposes this statement with
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against them about colouredness and
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I say:mediator, participates in thi
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application of the term ‘necessar
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meaning is to ask whether a thing p
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we have rent them . . . ‘and the
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Having assumed that they deny the q
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I say:plurality and duality on the
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assume one thing eternal by itself
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I say:But the body is not a means f
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views, or regarded this as permissi
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wisdom in the product itself, namel
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his attacks on the philosophers in
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I say:not possible, and your statem
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together, and the difference betwee
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I say:universe is known to God, and
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acknowledged in the case of this pr
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all things is attachment to matter
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simply the hot body that accepts co
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this conjunction and disjunction mu
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not imply (as he falsely affirms of
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I say:philosophers do, or abandon t
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consequences which follow from his
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But the knowledge of the Creator op
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I say:‘Well, let the seeing then
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acts which proceed from the arts, a
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the utmost excellence, which is kno
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move in circles and that between th
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This is what we wanted to do first,
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the person who takes up different p
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universals must, by admitting in Hi
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and if you acknowledge an eternal w
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I say:But one may say: Why is this
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existents would be the cause of His
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I say:will, because His will has th
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they exclude heaven from this kind
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And as to his affirmation ‘that t
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also have to ask about these bodies
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THE FIFTEENTH DISCUSSIONTO REFUTE T
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Everything he says here about the p
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himself through trying to be in an
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For instance, when a man sees that
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on sublunary existence, so that, if
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I say:any case, has to be proved, s
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causes. Sometimes we know part of t
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particular perceptions; that is, th
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shows it to him by way of revelatio
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if, however, reason does riot perce
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And if they reverse this against us
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the irascible and the concupiscible
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study a problem common to theoretic
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terms of the conclusion are present
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The ancient philosophers did not di
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fire; for we regard it as possible
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To deny the existence of efficient
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is not necessary, the philosophers
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I say:notwithstanding the fact that
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fire-not, however, absolutely, but
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When the theologians admit that the
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the angels there should arise a qua
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serpent, and the scorpion, for thei
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identification of black and white i
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objectionable, and contrary to comm
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that the judgement of our intellect
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from the wolf while it walks behind
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I say:it receives from the angels k
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about its premisses, for the major
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I say:in the doctrine of the philos
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a faculty in a body; and it follows
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indivisible; if the relation, howev
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fainting, drunkenness, and the illn
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saying that knowing is the opposite
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Such arguments are all arguments of
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claimed to be its organ, so that it
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I say:his head than to his heels, a
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I say:others-yes, it may be that th
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I say:anger and the observation of
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that Plato was forced to introduce
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I say:thing occurs, does not produc
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separate substance has no opposite.
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The Fourth DiscussionHaving finishe
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which are attributed to Solomon. An
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And all this, as you see, is confus
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