Diocles of Carystus on the method of dietetics 93
many resemblances to Aristotelian and Peripatetic language and style of
argument. For example, Diocles’ way of expressing himself in section 8
certainly reminds us of Aristotle, who also often uses the combination
of ‘in a certain way’ (!
) and ‘look like’ (
) in order to
qualify the similarities he sees between different entities or phenomena; the
combination"
(‘look like starting-points’) is also attested several
times in Aristotle’s works.^42 The sophisticated way in which Diocles argues
8
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. G
3
5
) "1 "3 *
)
< T . 5 (1 1 "1 * <) (
0 A
1 3
%
A
1 % 8 "
? 3 1 )
! <
;tr.van
Raalte ( 1993 ) 57 , slightly modified); Theophrastus, fr. 159 Fortenbaugh et al.: ‘For just as the person
who thinks that everything can be demonstrated does away above all with demonstration itself, in
the same waythe person who looks for explanations of everythingturns completely upside down all the
things there are, and their order which proceeds from a certain definite first principle’ (? 1
"
1
F (%
% "!
D
"
0 $ 3 ! +
,
) - #
'# "
1 \ % D
(* % "!
P
# " d$, tr. Fortenbaugh et al. ( 1992 ) vol.i, 321 ); Aristotle,Ph. 256 a 28 – 9 :
‘if, then, something causes movement by being itself moved, this must come to a standstill and not
go on indefinitely’ (
G
- !
0 " #
%
'
); Aristotle,
Metaph. 1070 a 2 – 4 : ‘it will go on to infinity, if it is not only the bronze that becomes round but
also that which is round, or that bronze comes to be; it is necessary for this to come to a halt’ (
'
G ,
0 % ! 3
- " 1 3 - B
!T " # %
). On undemonstrable principles see Aristotle,Top. 158 b 1 ff. On the
limits ofteleologicalexplanation see Aristotle,Part. an. 677 a 16 – 17 : ‘for this reason, one should not
seek a final cause of everything; rather, because some things are like that [i.e. having a final cause],
many others occur of necessity as a result of these’ (( %
1 $ =# 4
!T
" 1
* \)
-) 4 D " # <
1 $ ).Eth. Nic. 1098 a
33 –b 3 :‘one should not ask for the cause in all cases in a similar way; in some things it is sufficient that
the fact is well established, as is the case with the principles; the fact is primary, and a principle’ (
$
’
. /
)
-
0 '
+0 " 5 /3
3
*0
` 1 " Q 3 5
* ").(^42) I performed Pandora complex searches on the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae CD Rom #D for com-
binations of forms of"with forms of
within three lines of context in the Hippocratic
Corpus, Plato, Aristotle and Theophrastus and found the following results: Aristotle,Hist. An. 511
b 10 – 15 : ‘since the nature of the blood and that of the blood vesselsresembles a starting-point...it is
difficult to observe... the nature of the most principal blood vessels is invisible’ ( 5 $&1 2
8 $ E -
8 <... #...'# 8 -
) )
<). Aristotle,Metaph. 1059 b 29 – 39 : ‘for these [i.e. the highest classes of things, i.e. being and
unity] are supposed to contain everything that is and mostto resemble starting-points, because they are
naturally primary... but inasmuch as the species are destroyed together with the genera, it is rather
the genera thatresemble starting-points; for that which also causes destruction to something else,
is a starting-point’ ($ 1
5 J H # #
1 \
$&" -
1 3 ,
* C -
...6C .
1 A#0 1 #
" $&" 2 + T "% 1 3
$). [Aristotle],Mag. mor. 1190 a 24 : ‘the end
looks like some sort of starting-point, and every individual thing is for the sake of that’ (3 .
$&1
2
, - 4
4). [Aristotle],Mag. mor. 1206 b 28 : ‘this is why
an emotion that is in a good disposition towards virtuelooks more like a starting-pointthan reason’
(
3 + $&1 2
3 % " % 3 G
B !).
Similar searches for combinations of!
and a form of
yielded the following
results: Aristotle,Gen. an. 758 a 30 –b 3 : ‘That some of these animals come into being through
copulation, others spontaneously, has been said before, and in addition that some produce grubs
and for what reason. For pretty much all animalsin some way seemto produce grubs to start with;