Part and whole

Use in the book

The Timaeus excerpt explains the world’s completeness by the use of all four constituents, leaving no part or power outside. Aesara’s account of soul treats a community as requiring members with different functions, comparing psychic portions with different sense organs. The Parmenides excerpt considers unlimited parts of being within a dialectical argument. Its placement under Matter does not turn that argument into a physical inventory.

Places to read

1. I.22.1f.2Complete parts constitute a single complete world.
2. I.49.27.3Different psychic portions make cooperation possible.
3. I.11.6The dialectical argument distributes being among its many parts.

Translation in this edition

“Part” does not always mean a detachable piece of matter. Its relation to function or to an argument about being must remain visible.

Use in the book

“Whole” has several distinct roles. A composite bodily whole depends upon its parts and their coordination. The world's ordered whole possesses a goodness exceeding that of an isolated part, because their relations and proportions contribute to a shared end. When the language of wholeness is applied to God, it signifies completeness without assembly: whatever is in him is whole, without smaller and greater constituent portions. The later technical classification accordingly places him above a whole constituted by plurality. The theory of minds wholly present throughout immensity similarly describes indivisible presence rather than spatial distribution, but Ficino explicitly attributes that theory to earlier thinkers. In creation and preservation, God's production of an effect totum, in its entirety, means that no independent remainder falls outside its dependence. Nor can any finite whole or collection of images exhaust the infinite exemplar.

Book IV introduces a more technical classification through omne. God is above every whole as simple unity beyond number, and individual bodies lie beneath the whole. Between these stand three modes of totality. Angel is one in essence, point, and moment: a single substance, spatially undispersed, and possessing its perfections together. Soul is one in essence and point but varies through moments. World-matter remains one substance while varying in time and extending through many spatial points. “One in point” means spatial indivisibility, not a soul reduced to a geometrical point situated in a body.

This is a descent between grades, not a transformation in which soul eventually acquires bodily extension. Temporal multiplicity first appears at the level of soul; spatial dispersion appears at the lower level of world-matter. Ficino argues that spatial plurality in essence entails temporal plurality in operation, but temporal plurality need not entail spatial division. An essence may exceed its operation in unity and perfection, not conversely. Hence time is encountered before place in the explanatory order, rather than at an earlier date in cosmic history.

The three wholes also differ in their manner of containing principles. Angel holds them all together in habitual possession and actuality; soul holds all in possession rather than universal simultaneous actualization; matter contains them all in potency, without habitual possession, and receives them only in succession. IV.2.10 then qualifies the soul-level description by distinguishing celestial mind, whose Ideas are together actually, from its lowest motive power, whose productive seeds unfold successively. These wholes are therefore modes of containing and realizing multiplicity, not simply larger and smaller collections of physical parts.

Further passage references. II.2.3; II.6.13–142; II.6.24; II.7.21–2323; II.9.21–222; II.10.5; IV.2.3–IV.2.102345678; apparatus; IV.2.10–112

Places to read

1. II.2.3A composite whole depends on its parts and their unifying source.
2. II.6.13–142 and II.6.24Wholly present mind is treated under an expressly attributed account rather than partitioned spatial distribution.
3. II.9.21–222The whole order’s goodness involves relations among differentiated parts.
4. IV.2.3–9234567God above whole, three grades of whole, and individual bodies below whole are systematically distinguished.
5. IV.2.10–112Celestial powers qualify the broad soul-totality account through different modes of simultaneous possession.

Translation in this edition

The edition renders omne as “whole” in IV.223456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 to retain its graded metaphysical use. “One in point” means spatially undispersed, not confined like a geometrical point; “one in moment” contrasts with successive variation.

commune / totum in singulis

commune / totum in singulis. Printed forms: commune; totumque in singulis.

What is common to parts and whole in each. Unity cannot be divided among parts without requiring a further unifier; its nonpartitive presence supports the case for incorporeality. References: I.3.30. See Whole and parts.

compago / membrum

compago / membrum. Printed forms: compago; membra.

Joined structure / member or organ. Organic members serve one another and the whole; removing a member is said nearly to dissolve the structure. References: II.13.16. See Whole and parts.

complecti / comprehendere

complecti / comprehendere. Printed forms: complectantur; complectitur; comprehendit.

To embrace or contain. Spheres' minds embrace bodies through souls; soul contains higher and lower powers; its lowest activity does not embrace every seed at once. References: IV.1.31, IV.2.10, IV.2.12. See Whole and parts.

compono / pars / totum

compono / pars / totum. Printed forms: compositum; compositus; pars; totum.

To compose, a part and a whole. The hypothetical composite God would have unequal dependent parts, act through one part and fail to enjoy his whole self everywhere. References: I.6.6. See Whole and parts.

constare / consistere

constare / consistere. Printed forms: constat.

Consist of, be established, or stand together. A whole consists of its members; elsewhere constat introduces a conclusion regarded as evident. Context distinguishes composition from argumentative assertion. References: II.13.21, III.2.6. See Whole and parts.

constare / consistere / constituere

constare / consistere / constituere. Printed forms: consistit; constat; constituunt.

To consist in, be established, or constitute a whole. Truth consists in simple unity; parts constitute one world; order consists in relations between unequal things. References: II.1.1, II.2.9, II.7.17, II.9.21. See Whole and parts.

continuus / continuare / continuatio

continuus / continuare / continuatio. Printed forms: continuam; continuatione; continuatis.

Continuous; to join in continuity; continuity or uninterrupted continuation. Continuity describes three different relations: the continuous succession of individual natural beings, parts joined into the single mass of an elemental globe, and the uninterrupted course of circular motion. These forms are distinct from continere, to contain. References: IV.1.35, IV.1.87, IV.2.23. See Whole and parts.

cumulus

cumulus. Printed forms: cumulus.

A gathered total or complete sum. The intermediate whole comprises the principles or content of all things in a specified mode, not necessarily a bodily heap. References: IV.2.4. See Whole and parts.

essentia puncto momento

essentia puncto momento. Printed forms: essentia; momento; puncto.

In essence, point, and moment: three modes of unity. Single substance, spatial indivisibility, and simultaneous possession distinguish angelic unity from lower totalities. References: IV.2.5. See Whole and parts.

gratia / causa with genitive

gratia / causa with genitive. Printed forms: corpusculi talis causa; totius mundi gratia.

For the sake of; an expression of purpose. Whole elemental spheres exist for the world's sake, while their mixed particles serve particular composites. References: IV.1.90, IV.1.91. See Whole and parts.

integer / totus / plenus

integer / totus / plenus. Printed forms: integram; integrum; plenissima.

Whole, complete, or full rather than divided into portions. The account of presence repeatedly says the source is whole; no finite image captures the exemplar’s entire perfection. References: II.6.6, II.6.14, II.9.8, II.10.5. See Whole and parts.

membra / lignum / aer

membra / lignum / aer. Printed forms: aere; ligno; membra.

Members or limbs, wood, and air in concrete examples. World-members form one body; fire is present to kindled wood; images of colors coexist in air in the reported theory. References: II.2.8, II.6.2, II.6.14. See Whole and parts.

modus unitatis

modus unitatis. Printed forms: modis; modum unitatis.

A way or mode of being one. Essence, point, and moment are three specified respects of unity; soul loses one mode while retaining two. This is explanatory differentiation rather than three physical parts of unity. References: IV.2.5, IV.2.7. See Whole and parts.

pars / totum

pars / totum. Printed forms: parte; partes; partibus; partis; tota; totique; totius; toto; totum.

Part / whole. The argument assesses a part’s perfection through its fitting contribution to an ordered whole rather than maximizing it independently. References: II.13.23, II.13.24. See Whole and parts.

pars / totus

pars / totus. Printed forms: pars; partes; partibus; partis; partium; totam; totius; toto; totum; totus.

Part and whole, spatial or explanatory according to context. A compounded whole needs its parts and unifier; God produces the whole effect, and order exceeds an isolated part’s excellence. References: II.2.3, II.2.8, II.7.21, II.9.21. See Whole and parts.

particula / particularis

particula / particularis. Printed forms: particulae.

Small part / particular rather than universal. A particular part’s apparent advantage can differ from the universal good; smallness alone does not make its contribution irrelevant. References: II.12.19, II.13.23. See Whole and parts.

super omne / sub omni

super omne / sub omni. Printed forms: sub omni; super omne.

Above the whole; below the whole. God's simple unity is distinguished from articulated totalities and the individual bodies beneath them. References: IV.2.3. See Whole and parts.