Balázs Varju Tóth
if we take a step away or turn our heads
is that thing then still the same thing?
we also have to consider some randomness whose extent should not be neglected, yet it can easily
escape our attention.
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“Now, of bodies, some are combinations, and some are the elements out of which these
combinations are formed. These last are indivisible, and protected from every kind of
transformation; otherwise everything would be resolved into non-existence. They exist by their
own force, in the midst of the dissolution of the combined bodies, being absolutely full, and as
such offering no handle for destruction to take hold of. It follows, therefore, as a matter of
absolute necessity, that the principles of things must be corporeal, indivisible elements.
The universe is infinite. For that which is finite has an extreme, and that which has an
extreme is looked at in relationship to something else. Consequently, that which has not an
extreme, has no boundary; and if it has no boundary, it must be infinite, and not terminated by
any limit. The universe then is infinite, both with reference to the quantity of bodies of which it is
made up, and to the magnitude of the void; for if the void were infinite, the bodies being finite,
then, the bodies would not be able to rest in any place; they would be transported about,
scattered across the infinite void for want of any power to steady themselves, or to keep one
another in their places by mutual repulsion. If, on the other hand, the void were finite, the bodies
being infinite, then the bodies clearly could never be contained in the void.”
Epicurus: The Letter to Herodotus, on physics; 40-42.
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Balázs Varju Tóth (b.1990), works mainly with moving image and most recently with text. He is actively trying to figure it out.