Lecture 10 — The second and third reasons proving the circularly moved body not infinite

55 Again, if from a finite time a finite time be subtracted, what remains must be finite and have a beginning. And if the time of a journey has a beginning, there must be a beginning also of the movement, and consequently also of the distance traversed. This applies universally. Take a line, ACE, infinite in one direction, E, and another line, BB, infinite in both directions. Let ACE describe a circle, revolving upon C as center. In its movement it will cut BB continuously for a certain time. This will be a finite time, since the total time is finite in which the heavens complete their circular orbit, and consequently the time subtracted from it, during which the one line in its motion cuts the other, is also finite. Therefore there will be a point at which ACE began for the first time to cut BB. This, however, is impossible. The infinite, then, cannot revolve in a circle; nor could the world, if it were infinite.

56 That the infinite cannot move may also be shown as follows. Let A be a finite line moving past the finite line, B. Of necessity A will pass clear of B and B of A at the same moment; for each overlaps the other to precisely the same extent. Now if the two were both moving, and moving in contrary directions, they would pass clear of one another more rapidly; if one were still and the other moving past it, less rapidly; provided that the speed of the latter were the same in both cases. This, however, is clear: that it is impossible to traverse an infinite line in a finite time. Infinite time, then, would be required. (This we demonstrated above in the discussion of movement.) And it makes no difference whether a finite is passing by an infinite or an infinite by a finite. For when A is passing B, then B overlaps A and it makes no difference whether B is moved or unmoved, except that, if both move, they pass clear of one another more quickly. It is, however, quite possible that a moving line should in certain cases pass one which is stationary quicker than it passes one moving in an opposite direction. One has only to imagine the movement to be slow where both move and much faster where one is stationary. To suppose one line stationary, then, makes no difficulty for our argument, since it is quite possible for A to pass B at a slower rate when both are moving than when only one is. If, therefore, the time which the finite moving line takes to pass the other is infinite, then necessarily the time occupied by the motion of the infinite past the finite is also infinite. For the infinite to move at all is thus absolutely impossible; since the very smallest movement conceivable must take an infinity of time. Moreover the heavens certainly revolve, and they complete their circular orbit in a finite time; so that they pass round the whole extent of any line within their orbit, such as the finite line AB. The revolving body, therefore, cannot be infinite.

102. After setting forth the first argument showing that the circularly moved body is not infinite, on the ground that the distance between two lines proceeding from the center will be infinite and untraversable, the Philosopher now presents the second argument, based on the fact that imaginary lines described in an infinite body, or in its place, cannot intersect.

And in this argument he sets forth the principle that if a finite time is subtracted from a finite time, the remainder will be finite, because part of a finite cannot be infinite; otherwise the whole would be less than the part. And if that remainder of time is finite, it has a beginning, for we say a time is said to be finite, if it has a beginning and end. But it has been demonstrated in Physics VI that time and motion and mobile follow one another in respect to being finite or infinite. Hence if the time which measures a starting out or motion is finite and has a beginning, then the motion must be finite and have a beginning, and so also must be the magnitude moved. And just as this applies to celestial motion, so too to other motions and mobiles.

103. Having set these things down as principles, he proceeds to demonstrate the proposition. Suppose that, from the center of an infinite body A, there is drawn the line AGE, which is infinite in one direction, namely, toward E; and let that line be revolving with the motion of the whole body, and that, with respect to the point G its motion describes a circle. Let us imagine also, in that imaginary space in which the infinite body is revolved, a certain immobile fixed line BB which does not cross the center but is nevertheless infinite. If then, as has been said, the line AGE by its motion describes a circle from G, i.e., whose radius is AG, it will turn out that the line AGE in making a revolution will cross the entire line BB in finite time. For it is manifest that the radius of a circle cannot be revolved in its circuit without covering or cutting successively the whole fixed immobile line imagined to be in the circle and not passing through the center. And that it is in a finite time that the line drawn from the center cuts the infinite line not passing through the center is manifest from the fact that the whole time in which the heaven is moved is finite, as is evident to our senses. Consequently, a part of that time which is subtracted from the whole time is finite, namely, the time in which AGE falls on line BB. Or rather it follows that that time is finite in which that cutting line is moved to the line which is cut; and this is the time that must be subtracted from all of finite time, so that the remaining time has a beginning, in keeping with the principle enunciated above. It follows, therefore, that the time in which AGE begins to cut BB has a beginning. However, this is impossible, because since it cuts one part before another, then if there is a beginning of the time in which it begins to cut, there would be a beginning in the infinite line, and that is contrary to the notion of infinite. In this way, then, it is plain that an infinite body cannot be revolved circularly. Hence if the world is infinite, it follows that it is not moved circularly. However, we do observe that the firmament is moved circularly. Hence it is not infinite.

104. The third argument is given at that the infinite cannot move may also be shown (272a21) and is based on the infinity of the whole body which is posited as moving circularly. He says, therefore, that also from what follows it is manifestly impossible for an infinite body to be moved circularly. As a premise he says that if A and B are two finite lines so that A is in motion beside B which is stationary, it follows of necessity that as A moves along it departs from the stationary line B, and conversely that the stationary line B is separated from the moved line A. The reason for this is that each of them overlaps the other to the same extent. But now if both are moved in contrary directions, the lines will separate more quickly. If, however, one is in motion beside the other which is stationary, they will separate more slowly—provided, of course, that they have the same speeds when both are in a separating motion and when one alone is in motion. The reason for presenting this as a premise is that the time in which one line traverses the other is the same as that in which the other traverses it.

After manifesting this point with respect to finite lines, he applies it to the infinite lines he is discussing. And he says that it is manifestly impossible for an infinite line to be traversed by a finite line in finite time. Hence it remains that a finite line traverses an infinite line in infinite time, and this was shown previously in the treatise on motion, i.e., in Physics VI. But as appears from what has been said about finite lines, it makes no difference whether it is a finite line being moved through an infinite or an infinite line being moved over a finite, for when an infinite line is being moved through a finite line, the same reasoning holds, whether the finite line is being moved or not. However, it is manifest that if the finite line is being moved as well as the infinite, each traverses the other. Hence, it is manifest that even if the finite line is not being moved, being traversed by the infinite line will be similar to traversing it. But because he had said that the situation is similar whether the other is moved or not, he now shows wherein there could be a difference: if each of the lines is being moved in a contrary direction, they will separate more swiftly. But this must be understood if the speed is the same, as was said above. For sometimes nothing prevents the line which is being moved next to a stationary one from traversing it more quickly than if it were moved next to a line in contrary motion; for example, when the two lines in contrary motion would have a slow motion, while the one in motion next to the stationary one would have a swift motion. Accordingly, it is no obstacle, so far as the argument is concerned, that the infinite line be moved next to a stationary finite line—since it happens that the moving line A more slowly traverses the moving line B than if the latter were not in motion, provided, of course, that in this second case, while B is stationary, line A is being moved more swiftly.

105. Thus, having shown that it makes no difference whether the infinite line is moved next to a stationary finite line, or whether the finite line is moved against the infinite, he argues from this that if the time in which the finite line traverses the infinite line is infinite, the consequence is that the time in which an infinite line is moved through a finite line is also infinite. Accordingly, it is plainly impossible for an entire infinite body to be moved through an entire infinite space—in which we imagine its motion to occur—in finite time: because if the infinite were moved even through the slightest finite space, it would follow that the time would be infinite, for it has been proved that the infinite is moved through the finite in infinite time, just as the finite through the infinite. But we observe that the heaven circles all its space in finite time. Hence, it is manifest that it traverses some finite line in finite time, for example, the line containing within itself the whole circle described about its center, namely, the line AB. Now this would not happen if it were infinite. It is impossible, therefore, that the circularly moved body be infinite.