The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919 · Alfred North Whitehead
NOTE: ON THE GREEK CONCEPT OF A POINT
The preceding pages had been passed for press before I had the pleasure of seeing Sir T. L. Heath's _Euclid in Greek_[14]. In the original Euclid's first definition is semeion estin, ou meros outhen. I have quoted it on p. 86 in the expanded form taught to me in childhood, 'without parts and without magnitude.' I should have consulted Heath's English edition--a classic from the moment of its issue--before committing myself to a statement about Euclid. This is however a trivial correction not affecting sense and not worth a note. I wish here to draw attention to Heath's own note to this definition in his _Euclid in Greek_. He summarises Greek thought on the nature of a point, from the Pythagoreans, through Plato and Aristotle, to Euclid. My analysis of the requisite character of a point on pp. 89 and 90 is in complete agreement with the outcome of the Greek discussion. [14] Camb. Univ. Press, 1920.
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