From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDiairesis is division; related forms express whether something can be divided.
- In StobaeusThe Aristotelian notice allows bodies to be divided without limit potentially but not actually.
- In this editionThe English preserves “divisible” as a modal claim.
- A place to beginPotential and actual infinite division are distinguished.
- English renderings
- division; divisibility
Meaning
Diairesis is division; related forms express whether something can be divided. The possibility of further division differs from an already completed infinite partition.
Use in the book
The Aristotelian notice allows bodies to be divided without limit potentially but not actually. Chrysippus’ report extends unlimited divisibility to body and to surface, line, place, void, and time, while denying that a body is therefore composed of infinitely many bodies. Democritus supplies a contrasting endpoint in things without parts. The chapter’s disagreement concerns both limits and the relation between division and composition.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The English preserves “divisible” as a modal claim. It does not imply that every possible division has already occurred.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 141–143.