[1069a]
[1]
1 is not successive to 2, nor is the
new moon1 to the second day of the month."Contiguous" is that which is
successive and in contact. The "continuous" is a species of the
contiguous.I call
two things continuous when their respective boundaries, by which they
are kept together in contact, become one and the same; hence clearly
the continuous belongs to the sphere of things whose nature it is to
become one by contiguity.Clearly
"successive" is the most ultimate term; for the successive need not be
in contact, but contact implies succession; and if there is continuity
there is contact, but if there is contact there is not necessarily
continuity;and
where there is no contact there is no coalescence. Therefore a point
is not the same as a unit; for points admit of contact, whereas units
do not, but only of succession; and between points there is something
intermediate, but between units there is not.
1 i.e., the first day of the month.
Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vols.17, 18, translated by Hugh Tredennick. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1933, 1989.
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