as belonging to this category. Those who agree with the majority of rational thinkers respond that the only intelligible precedence is precedence in time, or in time conceived hypothetically, in accordance with the familiar disagreement on this point.

As for precedence in place and rank, it follows from this, since whoever is ahead in place moves before whoever is behind, as the prayer leader moves before the worshipper following him, and the commander before the one under his command.

As for precedence by causality, unless this is what is meant by it, it has no reality. For it is altogether inconceivable that a complete cause, with all its constituent parts, should be simultaneous with its effect.

The statement, “My hand moved, so the ring moved,” is not an instance of an agent preceding what it produces. The hand’s movement does not produce the ring’s movement; rather, it is a condition for it. The ring’s movement, which follows the hand’s movement, can occur only on condition that the movement of the hand it follows exists, just as the fingers cannot move unless the hand moves.

If it is said, “The two movements occur together in time,” then the agent producing one also produces the other, and precedes them both.