SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROE3 129 



>etween them, 1 so that the Agent, thus conceived, 

 ias the function of a mere motive power. As to 

 hose who hold the hypothesis of creation, they say 

 hat the Agent produces being without having any 

 ecourse to pre-existent matter. This is the view 

 aken by our MotecaUemin, and by the followers of 

 he Christian religion : for example, by Johannes 

 Jhristianus (Philopon), who asserts that the possi- 

 ility of creation lies in the Agent alone.' 



' The intermediate view r s may be reduced to two 

 ly, though the first of these admits several 

 bdivisions which show considerable differences, 

 .ese opinions agree in affirming that generation is 

 ly a change of substance ; that all generation 

 .plies a subject ; and that everything begets in its 

 likeness. The first opinion asserts, however, 

 ,t the part of the Agent is to create form, and to 

 press it upon already existent matter. Some of 

 ose who hold this view, as Ibn Sina, 2 make an 

 tire separation between matter in generation and 

 Agent, calling the latter the source of form, 

 ile others, among whom we may notice Themistius 

 d perhaps Alfarabi, maintain that the Agent is 

 some cases conjoined with matter, as when fire 

 oduces fire, or man begets man ; and in others 

 >arate from it, as in the generation of creeping 

 gs and plants, i.e. those not produced from 

 J which all owe their being to causes that are 

 e themselves.' 



The third theory is that of Aristotle, who 

 Ids that the Agent produces at once both form 



1 See Metaphysica, xii. 334. 



2 Avicenna. See Destruction of Destruction, iii. 350. 



3 The doctrine of spontaneous generation, common among the 

 abian Philosophers, and specially taught by Ibn Tofail. 



