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CHAPTEE II.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VIEWS
HITHERTO HELD CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLE OF SUF
FICIENT SEASON.
6. First Statement of the Principle and Distinction between
A MOKE
Two of its Meanings.
or less accurately defined, abstract expression
for so fundamental a principle of all knowledge must
have been found at a very early age ; it would, therefore,
be difficult, and besides of no great interest, to determine
where it first appeared. Neither Plato nor Aristotle have
formally stated it as a leading fundamental principle,
of it as a self-evident truth.
although both often speak
Thus, with a naivete which savours of the state of innocence
as opposed to that of the knowledge of good and of evil,
when compared with the critical researches of our own
times, Plato says : dvayKaiov, TTCLVTCL TO. yiyvofj.va Sia nva
airiav yiyvtaQaC TTO)C yap av \wp\g TOVT&V *
yiyvono ;
(necesse
est, qucecunque fiunt, per aliquam causam : fieri quomodo
enim absque eafierent ?) and then : again TTOLV %e TO yiyvo^vov
VTT alrlov TIVOQ e avuytcrjg yiyveaQai iravrl yap a^vvaTOv^plg
yivtaiv ^xe ~
iy3 (quidquid gignitur, ex aliqua causa
1
It is necessary that all which
"
*
Phileb." Platon,
p. 240, ed Bip.
arises, should arise by some cause "
for how could it arise otherwise ?
;
[Tr. s add.]
"
2
Ibid. Timseus," p. 302.
some cause 5
cause." [Tr. s add.]
" All that arises, arises necessarily from
for it is impossible for anything to come into being without