PLACE, SPACE AND VOID

PLACE, SPACE AND VOID

PLACE

Place cannot be form, since it is extrinsic to what it contains.

Secondly,  place  is  not  the  same  as  space,  although  it  might  seem  to  be,  since  space  is  thought of  as absolute dimensions that do not change, whatever bodies happen to fill it. There cannot be any spatial dimensions apart from bodies and  other  environing or  containing bodies, because if space were Something with its own dimensions independent of bodies, then there would be two sets of dimensions that interpenetrate.

Thirdly, place is not matter, although place receives the different things it contains in a way resembling

the way matter receives different forms. Yet matter becomes one thing with the form it receives, whereas place remains distinct from what is In it. Therefore, place must be the boundary of the containing body, while the contained body is what is apt to be moved in respect to place.

Place Is also in some way immobile. That is how a place differs from a vessel, because a vessel can be

Moved, but a place cannot. If I am riding in a car, I am not per se in motion, but the car is. I am at rest

per se, but  per accidens I am in motion. Therefore I am not staying in the same place. My place is

determined  not by the  vessel which  immediately  contains  me,  but  by  reference  to  the  place  that contains the  vessel.

Thus  Aristotle concludes that place is  the immobile surface of that which primarily  contains a body.

The word “primarily” designates proper place (the nearest immobile surface, if in a  vessel) and exclude

common place.

SPACE

Space  absolutely always remain similar and immovable without regard to any external body. Place is a part of space which a body takes up and is according to the space either absolute or relative. Space is a general frame work. It is a whole co-ordinate, the one of physical beings. Space is a frame work of abstraction. It is everywhere. 

THE VOID

Arguments for its existence(Book 4, Lesson 9)

Change of  place  would be impossible if there were no void. That is because something cannot be moved into what is full, because a place filled with one body cannot receive another. Otherwise there would be two bodies in the same place. But there is motion. Therefore, there is a void.

Moreover, bodies that can be compressed or condensed seem to do so  because  the  parts  are  pressed into empty spaces ,like  foam. Likewise, a body cannot  absorb  food  and  grow unless  there is empty space into which the food can be taken. Besides, you can pour as much water into a bowl of gari as you can into an empty bowl; that shows that there are empty spaces in the gari.