Note 62 — Chapter XI · PHYSICA AND METAPHYSICA.
Reading edition
Aristot. Metaph. α. i. p. 993, b. 6: τὸ ὅλον τι ἔχειν καὶ μέρος μὴ δύνασθαι δηλοῖ τὸ χαλεπὸν αὐτῆς (τῆς περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας θεωρίας).
Alexander ap. Schol. p. 104, Bonitz: εἰς ἔννοιαν μὲν τοῦ ὅλου καὶ ἐπίστασιν πάντας ἐλθεῖν, μηδὲν δὲ μέρος αὐτῆς ἐξακριβώσασθαι δυνηθῆναι, δηλοῖ τὸ χαλεπὸν αὐτῆς.
Aristotle indicates how much the Philosophia Prima of his earlier predecessors was uncongenial to and at variance with phenomenal experience — Metaphys. A. v. p. 986, b. 31.
To shape their theories in such a way — τὰ φαινόμενα εἰ μέλλει τις ἀποδώσειν (Metaphys. Λ. viii. p. 1073, b. 36), was an obligation which philosophers hardly felt incumbent on them prior to the Aristotelian age. Compare Simplikius (ad. Aristot. Physic. I.), p. 328, a. 1-26, Schol. Br.; Schol. (ad. Aristot. De Cœlo III. I.) p. 509, a. 26-p. 510, a. 13.