206 HUMANISM 



XII 



I propose to trace, therefore, (i) the historical ante 

 cedents of Aristotle s doctrine, (2) his own statements of 

 it, (3) its consequences, (4) the objections to it, (5) the 

 answers to these, (6) its advantages over rival theories of 

 substance, (7) the worthlessness of the latter, and finally 

 (8) the value of the Aristotelian conception as an ultimate 

 ideal. 



The history of thought, like that of politics, has largely 

 been the history of great antitheses which have kept up 

 their secular conflict from age to age. In the course of 

 that history it may often have seemed that the one side 

 of such an antithesis had finally triumphed over the other, 

 but in the next generation it has often appeared that its 

 rival had rallied its forces and restated Its position to such 

 effect that the preponderance of opinion has once more 

 swung back to its side. Perhaps the most important 

 metaphysically of these antitheses is that which has at 

 different times been formulated as that between Tevea-is 

 and Ov&amp;lt;r[a, Evepyeia and f/ E^9, Becoming and Being, 

 Change and Immutability, Process and Permanence, and 

 it will be necessary to cast a rapid retrospect over its 

 varying fortunes in order to appreciate the full significance 

 of Aristotle s doctrine. 



It will suffice for this purpose to start with the 

 metaphysic of the Eleatics, taking it as the extremest, 

 crudest, most abstract, and therefore most impressive, 

 representative of what we may call, for purposes of reference, 

 the permanence-view of the ultimate nature of existence. 

 In the Eleatics the affirmation of Being took the form 

 of a rigid immutable &quot;Qv, whose uncompromising unity 

 reduced all motion, change and plurality to an inexplicable 

 illusion, and remorselessly crushed out the whole signifi 

 cance of human life. This uncanny Monism was defended 

 with a dialectical ability which has never since been 

 equalled, and Zeno s proofs of the impossibility of motion 

 are still full of instruction for philosophers of all schools. 



