Some people believed that the heavens did not attract the earth...

Some people believed that the heavens did not attract the earth, but rather that they repelled it, and that, since the force influencing the earth was equal on all sides, the result was that the earth was fixed in a particular spot and never changed its place.

There was also general belief in the faculty for attraction and repulsion in the case of plants and animals, in the sense that it was recognized that these had three basic faculties: the nutritive faculty, the faculty of growth, and the faculty of reproduction. For the nutritive faculty, they believed there were some subsidiary faculties: attractive, repulsive, digestive and retentive.

It was said that there was in the stomach a force of attraction which pulled food towards itself, or, occasionally, when it did not accept the food, excreted or repelled it [^2] ; and similarly it was said that there was a power of attraction in the liver which drew water towards itself. The stomach draws in bread to its resting place, The heat of the liver draws in water.

[^3] Attraction and repulsion in the world of man The meaning of attraction and repulsion here is not the attractions and repulsions to do with sex, although these too are a particular kind of attraction and repulsion, for they have nothing to do with our discussion and form an independent object of enquiry. Rather the meaning here is the attractions and repulsions which exist among individual human beings in the arena of social life.

In human society there are also some forms of cooperation which are based on the sharing of benefits, but these too, of course, are not within the scope of our discussion. The greatest proportion of friendships and affections, or enmities and hatred are all manifestations of human attraction and repulsion. These attractions and repulsions are based on general resemblance and similarity, or opposition and mutual aversion.

[^4] In fact, the basic cause of attraction and repulsion must be looked for in general resemblance and contrariety (taddad), just as in the discussions of metaphysics it has been proved that general resemblance is the cause of union Sometimes two human beings attract each other, and their hearts wish for them to be friends and companions one with the other. There is a secret in this, and the secret is nothing other than general resemblance.

Unless there is a similarity between these two persons, they cannot attract one another and move towards friendship with each other.