At 16:02 05.03.00 +0100, you wrote:
>No doubt, the very notion of "the whole as being greater than the sum of
>its parts" is essentially a feature of medieval scholasticism, and I have
>been told by Brian P. McGuire that the very expression might even be found
>in St. Thomas' writings. Since I have not come across such a statement in
>St. Thomas, I wonder whether anyone among the participants in the mailbase
>discussion could provide me with reference to its occurence, whether it be
>in St. Thomas or somewhere else, if it is traceable in medieval writings.
>Any kind of answer will be of great interest.
Dear Jesper,
The phrase or idea is much older than Aquinas. The earliest occurrence that
I am aware of is in Aristotle's _Topics_, book VI, part 13, where the first
paragraphs offers the phrasing "that the whole is not the same [i.e. is
more, OL] as the sum of its parts" (tr. Pickard-Cambridge). As translations
of and glosses on the _Topics_ were widely diffused in medieval schools, it
should be easy to collect more medieval references than you can reasonably
desire :-)
Best,
Otfried
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