Conclusions [Aristotle on the Continuum in Presocratic Thought]

So far, by adopting Aristotle’s point of view (as stated at the beginning of this study) I have tried to present what the philosophers prior to Aristotle, and particularly the so-called Presocratics, said about the notion of continuum by dealing with it more or less explicitly. As I have already explained, I have carried out an analysis of this kind because I believe—as I hope to have sufficiently proved—that the way in which Aristotle develops his notion of continuum takes account of his predecessors’ theories: the philosopher considers those aspects of such theories that he regards as positive and sets out to correct those that he considers erroneous and problematic, according to the methodological procedure that he lays out in Metaph. α 1, 993b11 ff., although he does not present a dialectical treatment of his predecessors’ positions on the notion of continuum.