Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/302

288 (§ 53). Aristotle tells us that it is the Even which gives things their unlimited character when it is contained in them and limited by the Odd, and the commentators are at one in understanding this to mean that the Even is in some way the cause of infinite divisibility. They get into difficulties, however, when they try to show how this can be. Simplicius has preserved an explanation, in all probability Alexander's, to the effect that they called the even number unlimited "because every even is divided into equal parts, and what is divided into equal parts is unlimited in respect of bipartition; for division into equals and halves goes on ad infinitum. But, when the odd is added, it limits it; for it prevents its division into equal parts." Now it is plain that we must not impute to the Pythagoreans the view that even numbers can be halved indefinitely. They must have known that the even numbers 6 and 10 can only be halved once. The explanation is rather to be found in a fragment of Aristoxenos, where we read that "even numbers are those which are divided, into equal parts, while odd numbers are divided into unequal parts and have a middle term." This is still further elucidated by a passage which is quoted in Stobaios and ultimately goes back to Poseidonios. It runs: "When the odd is divided into two equal parts, a unit is left over in the middle; but when the even is so divided, an empty field is left, without a master and without a number, showing that it is defective and incomplete."