Appendix to the Books on Plants and Peripatetic Questions

Intelligible things Objects that can be understood by the mind rather than just perceived by the senses. are created by removing the conditions of matter, from which the multitude of individual things arises. From this process, the universal emerges, which is the object of the intellect—just as "human" emerges from "this specific human." This is the essence original: "ratio" that is the same in many: the form, and the What-it-isoriginal: "Quodquid est"; a literal translation of the Greek "to ti en einai," referring to the essence or definition of a thing.. However, all natural forms include a certain matter in their definition, which is called "intelligible matter" because it pertains to the intellect. For they are all like "snub-nosedness," which is the curvature of a nose. Therefore, every definition or "What-it-is" of natural things is resolved into a certain act and that of which it is the act: such as "Snub" into "curvature" and "nose," or "Human" into "soul" and "body." This resolution does not stop until it reaches the ultimate point, which cannot be dissolved into other principles. For that is the principle of all others, whether it be one or many.

Chapter II.

Furthermore, if we resolve the human body into its principles, we will find it to be a magnitude that is hot, cold, moist, and dry. These qualities, in their simple state, constitute the substance of the elements; however, when mixed according to various temperaments, they form similar partsAlso known as "homeomerous" parts; tissues like bone or flesh where any fragment is the same as the whole, unlike "organic" parts like a hand or eye., some of which are soft, some hard, and others in between—but each is made not at random, but for the sake of something. For it was necessary for bones to be hard, flesh to be soft, and nerves to be in between. Moreover, through the various composition, figure, number, magnitude, position, and placement of these similar parts, we see various organs established to perform their operations, for the sake of which they were made by nature. If, besides this, we resolve the body as a body into its essential definitions, we will find three dimensions: lines, surfaces, and depth. These, while infinite in themselves, are bounded by one another: depth by surface, surface by lines, and line by points. Beyond these, nothing is found except number, in which there is no essence of substance such that they might exist by themselves. Therefore, those among the ancients who sought substance in these things,