THE CONCEPT OF NATURE

NOTE: ON THE GREEK CONCEPT OF A POINT

The preceding pages had been passed for press before I had the pleasure of seeing Sir T. L. Heath’s Euclid in Greek[14]. In the original Euclid’s first definition is

σημειον εστιν, ου μερος ουθεν.

I have quoted it on p. 86 in the expanded form taught to me in childhood, ‘without parts and without magnitude.’ I should have consulted Heath’s English edition—a classic from the moment of its issue—before committing myself to a statement about Euclid. This is however a trivial correction not affecting sense and not worth a note. I wish here to draw attention to Heath’s own note to this definition in his Euclid in Greek. He summarises Greek thought on the nature of a point, from the Pythagoreans, through Plato and Aristotle, to Euclid. My analysis of the requisite character of a point on pp. 89 and 90 is in complete agreement with the outcome of the Greek discussion.