If, however, it is said, “Rather, one follows immediately after the other in time, like successive parts of time,” then the claim that they occur together in time is invalid.

People often confuse something’s existing alongside another thing with its existing immediately after it. Indeed, they use the word “with” for what follows immediately afterward, saying, “They came together,” even when one arrived immediately after the other, with no interval between them. They even use this expression when the other arrives shortly afterward. Thus, when two occurrences take place at the same time, or one occurs immediately after the other without an interval—as with the parts of motion and time—most people cannot distinguish between the two cases through sensory perception.

Accordingly, someone who says, “My hand moved, so my sleeve moved,” may be asked, “Why could these not occur alongside one another, just as the parts of motion and time occur alongside one another?”

Motion arises little by little from the agent and the receptive subject. When someone moves a chain or rope suspended at both ends, moving one end sets it in motion little by little until the motion reaches the other end. The motion proceeds successively, just as its time does; motion at one end precedes motion at the other. Consider the body as it moves from one place to another: its parts move at the same instant, none preceding another except where a particular movement leads, as when one foot precedes the other—unlike the contiguous vertebrae of the back, which are connected in