, for this would entail an effect without a cause. They do, however, hold that such causes and effects necessarily arise incidentally from an eternal cause—not as a linear, simultaneous series in infinitely many material substrates, but in cycles.’”

He said:

“As for what he reports from Ibn Sīnā—that he allows infinitely many souls, and that such infinity is impossible only in things having a spatial position—this is incorrect, and none of the philosophers holds this view. Its impossibility is evident from the general demonstration we have cited from them. Thus none of the consequences he seeks to impose upon the philosophers on the basis of this supposition is binding upon them—I mean the assertion that infinitely many souls actually exist.

“It was for this reason that those who held that souls are as numerous as individuals, and that they endure, advocated the transmigration of souls.”

He said:

“As for his statement, ‘Why did they not allow bodies situated one above another in space without end, yet allowed entities succeeding one another in time without end? Is this not simply a feeble, arbitrary assertion?!’

“The distinction between the two is perfectly clear to the philosophers. For positing