Primary Entity (Arche) Everlastingly Persists
Read carefully the following passage from Aristotle:
Most of the earliest philosophers regarded a principle of a material kind as the only principle of all things. That of which all things consist, from which they are initially generated, and into which they are finally dissolved, is persisting substance, although its attributes change. This [primarly entity], they affirm, is arche, the element and first principle of Being . . . Hence, they hold that there is nothing that is originally generated or completely annihilated, as this primary entity everlastingly persists.
Question (1): Try to reconstruct the reasoning of how the earliest philosophers arrived at their conclusion that “this primary entity (arche) everlastingly persists“.
Question (2): Here is a definition of primary substance: That which continues to exist regardless of any change in its attributes.
Consider an ordinary artifact, say, a dining room table that is constructed entirely of wood cut from a single tree. According only to the above definition and no other definition, of primary substance, answer the following questions:
a) Is the table a primary substance?
b) Is the wood from which the table is composed a primary substance?
c) Is the tree from which the wood originates a primary substance?
d) Are the wood molecules of which the table is composed primary substances?
e) Are the atoms of which the table is composed primary substances?
Your answers to questions (2a) - (2e) will be either 'yes', or 'no', but you must provide a brief justification for each of your answers.
In your paper be sure to clearly demarcate your answers to Question 1 from your answers to Question
2. In your answers to these questions, your consultation of any bibliographic or internet source material is forbidden. Therefore, your paper must be free of any reference citations, including any drawn from your textbook. As always, your knowledge of at least middle-school level mathematics and the natural sciences is assumed.
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Philosophy
Question 1
The idea of a primary entity (arche) that persists everlastingly is founded on such ideas as the fact that the physical world is constantly changing. These constant changes imply that the world of experience is essentially a deception and that true reality exists as the only certain and unchanging being. Overall, this permanent reality forms the unwavering basis for everything else in the physical world.
Question 2
Question 2a
No. The table is not a primary substance as it is formed from wood, which is itself a precursor of certain organic compounds. The nature of the table fails to meet the criteria set in the definition of a primary substance. For instance, subjecting the table to a fire would bring its existence to an end, suggesting that it does not exist independently.
Question 2b...