Doğanın Bölünmesi: Dört Tür Üzerine

Teacher. Often as I think, and as diligently as my strength allows, I inquire into the fact that the first and highest division of all things—which can either be perceived by the mind or surpass its reach—is into those things that are and those things that are not. A general term for all these occurs to me, which in Greek is called physis and in Latin is called Natura (Nature). Since we are then in agreement about this term being general, I would like you to state the method of its division into species by their differences. It seems to me that the division of Nature through four differences receives four species: The first is that which creates and is not created; the second is that which is created and creates; the third is that which is created and does not create; the fourth is that which neither creates nor is created. Of these four, two are opposed to each other in pairs; for the third is opposed to the first, and the fourth to the second. But the fourth is placed among the impossibilities; its difference is the inability to be. The first, as I judge, is understood as the Cause of all things that are and are not. The second is in the primordial causes. The third is in those things known in generation, times, and places, and therefore it is necessary to dispute each one more subtly.