I gather all that I would desire to say into three points: 'that Light' and its witnesses; the underived Light and the kindled lamps; the undying Light and the lamps that go out.
Man has no original and underived legislative power, and one man has in and of himself no authority over another; for all men by the law of nature are equal, and have equal rights, and among equals no one has the right to govern.
Man is not equal with his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect, [15] and has no power underived from its creator.
That which is formed [5] is not cause, but effect; and has no underived power.
They are absolute and independent, underived and unoriginated—the essential qualities of my nature.
Moreover, I found in Gregory Nazianzen and others, that to confess this derivation of the Son and Spirit and the underivedness of the Father alone, was in their view quite essential to save Monotheism; the One God being the underived Father.
Empedocles had believed in four ultimate and underived kinds of matter.
The opposite of monism is therefore pluralism, which is that kind of philosophy which seeks to explain the universe from many ultimate and equally underived principles.
In that case, we thus have two equally real ultimate beings, each underived from the other, existing side by side from all eternity.
He assumes the Nous and matter as existing from the beginning, side by side, as equally ultimate and underived principles.
