The Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library Classics) (143 page)

10
     Since contraries are other in form, and the perishable and the imperishable are contraries (for privation is a determinate incapacity), the perishable and the imperishable must be different in kind.

Now so far we have spoken of the general terms themselves, so that it might be thought not to be necessary that every imperishable thing should be different from every perishable thing in form,
(30)
just as not every pale thing is different in form from every dark thing. For the same thing can be both, and even at the same time if it is a universal (e. g. man can be both pale and dark), and if it is an individual it can still be both; for the same man can be, though not at the same time,
(35)
pale and dark. Yet pale is contrary to dark.

But while some contraries belong to certain things by accident (e. g. both those now mentioned and many others), others cannot, and among these are ‘perishable’ and ‘imperishable’. For nothing is by
accident perishable.
[1059a]
For what is accidental is capable of not being present, but perishableness is one of the attributes that belong of necessity to the things to which they belong; or else one and the same thing may be perishable and imperishable,
(5)
if perishableness is capable of not belonging to it. Perishableness then must either be the essence or be present in the essence of each perishable thing. The same account holds good for imperishableness also; for both are attributes which are present of necessity. The characteristics, then, in respect of which and in direct consequence of which one thing is perishable and another imperishable, are opposite, so that the things must be different in kind.

Evidently,
(10)
then, there cannot be Forms such as some maintain, for then one man
²⁶
would be perishable and another
²⁷
imperishable. Yet the Forms are said to be the same in form with the individuals and not merely to have the same name; but things which differ in kind
²⁸
are farther apart than those which differ in form.

¹
v. 6.

²
Nature is defined (v. 1015
^a
13) as ‘the essence of things which have in themselves, as such, a source of movement’.

³
sc
. the form.

⁴
sc
. heavy and light, fast and slow.

⁵
Cf. 1052
^b
33, 1053
^a
5.

⁶
iii. 1001
^a
4–
^b
25.

⁷
The three thinkers referred to are Empedocles, Anaximenes, Anaximander.

⁸
vii. 13.

⁹
Two of the kinds, contrariety and privation, are not mutually exclusive, for contrariety is the relation between a form and its complete privation. Cf. iv. 1004
^b
27, x. 1055
^b
26.

¹⁰
Cf. iv. 1004
^a
2.

¹¹
v. 9.

¹²
Cf.
^a
6.

¹³
v. 22.

¹⁴
1055
^b
4–6.

¹⁵
This is a Platonic doctrine; Cf. xiv. 1087
^b
7.

¹⁶
Cf. 1055
^a
16.

¹⁷
i. e. a fluid. Cf. l. 16.

¹⁸
v. 1021
^a
26–30.

¹⁹
i. e. this intermediate differentia comes between the extreme differentiae, as the intermediate species comes between the extreme species.

²⁰
Ch. 4.

²¹
1055
^a
16.

²²
sc
. individuals or
infimae species.

²³
sc
. individuals.

²⁴
i. e. by eliminating the form which characterizes the concrete thing.

²⁵
i. e. that in whose definition no contrarieties are included.

²⁶
The sensible individual.

²⁷
The ideal man.

²⁸
As the perishable and the imperishable have been shown to do.

1
     That Wisdom is a science of first principles is evident from the introductory chapters,
¹
in which we have raised objections to the statements of others about the first principles; but one might ask the question whether Wisdom is to be conceived as one science or as several.
(20)
If as one, it may be objected that one science always deals with contraries, but the first principles are not contrary. If it is
not
one, what sort of sciences are those with which it is to be identified?
²

Further, is it the business of one science, or of more than one, to examine the first principles of demonstration? If of one,
(25)
why of this rather than of any other? If of more, what sort of sciences must these be said to be?
³

Further, does Wisdom investigate all substances or not? If not all, it is hard to say which; but if, being one, it investigates them all, it is doubtful how the same science can embrace several subject-matters.
⁴

Further, does it deal with substances only or also with their attributes? If in the case of
attributes
demonstration is possible,
(30)
in that of
substances
it is not. But if the two sciences are different, what is each of them and which is Wisdom? If we think of it as demonstrative,
the science of the attributes is Wisdom, but if as dealing with what is primary, the science of substances claim the title.
⁵

But again the science we are looking for must not be supposed to deal with the causes which have been mentioned in the
Physics
.
⁶
For (A) it does not deal with the final cause (for that is the nature of the good,
(35)
and this is found in the field of action and movement; and it is the first mover—for that is the nature of the end—but in the case of things unmovable there is nothing that moved them first),
⁷
and (B) in general it is hard to say whether perchance the science we are now looking for deals with perceptible substances or not with them, but with certain others.
[1059b]
If with others, it must deal either with the Forms or with the objects of mathematics. Now (
a
) evidently the Forms do not exist. (But it is hard to say, even if one suppose them to exist, why in the world the same is not true of the other things of which there are Forms, as of the objects of mathematics. I mean that these thinkers place the objects of mathematics between the Forms and perceptible things,
(5)
as a kind of third set of things apart both from the Forms and from the things in this world; but there is not a third man or horse besides the ideal and the individuals. If on the other hand it is not as they say, with what sort of things must the mathematician be supposed to deal? Certainly not with the things in this world; for none of these is the sort of thing which the mathematical sciences demand.
(10)
) Nor (
b
) does the science which we are now seeking treat of the objects of mathematics; for none of them can exist separately. But again it does not deal with perceptible substances; for they are perishable.
⁸

In general one might raise the question, to what kind of science it belongs to discuss the difficulties about the matter of the objects of mathematics.
(15)
Neither to physics (because the whole inquiry of the physicist is about the things that have in themselves a principle of movement and rest), nor yet to the science which inquires into demonstration and science; for
this
is just the subject which
it
investigates. It remains then that it is the philosophy which we have set before ourselves that treats of those subjects.
(20)

One might discuss the question whether the science we are seeking should be said to deal with the principles which are by some called elements; all men suppose these to be present in composite things. But it might be thought that the science we seek should treat rather of universals; for every definition and every science is of
universals and not of
infimae species
,
⁹
(25)
so that as far as this goes it would deal with the highest genera. These would turn out to be being and unity; for these might most of all be supposed to contain all things that are, and to be most like principles because they are first by nature; for if they perish all other things are destroyed with them; for everything
is
and is one.
(30)
But inasmuch as, if one is to suppose them to be genera, they must be predicable of their differentiae, and no genus is predicable of any of its differentiae, in this way it would seem that we should not make them genera nor principles. Further, if the simpler is more of a principle than the less simple,
(35)
and the ultimate members of the genus are simpler than the genera (for they are indivisible, but the genera are divided into many and differing species), the species might seem to be the principles, rather than the genera. But inasmuch as the species are involved in the destruction of the genera, the genera are more like principles; for that which involves another in its destruction is a principle of it.
¹⁰
These and others of the kind are the subjects that involve difficulties.
[1060a]

2
     Further, must we suppose something apart from individual things, or is it these that the science we are seeking treats of? But these are infinite in number.
(5)
Yet the things that are apart from the individuals are genera or species; but the science we now seek treats of neither of these. The reason why this is impossible has been stated.
¹¹
Indeed, it is in general hard to say whether one must assume that there is a separable substance besides the sensible substances (i. e. the substances in this world), or that these are the real things and Wisdom is concerned with them.
(10)
For we seem to seek another kind of substance, and this is our problem, i. e. to see if there is something which can exist apart by itself and belongs to no sensible thing.—Further, if there is another substance apart from and corresponding to sensible substances, which kinds of sensible substance must be supposed to have this corresponding to them? Why should one suppose men or horses to have it,
(15)
more than either the other animals or even all lifeless things? On the other hand to set up other and eternal substances equal in number to the sensible and perishable substances would seem to fall beyond the bounds of probability.—But if the principle we now seek is not separable from corporeal things, what has a better claim to the name than matter? This,
(20)
however, does not exist in actuality, but exists in potency. And it
would seem rather that the form or shape is a more important principle than this; but the form is perishable,
¹²
so that there is no eternal substance at all which can exist apart and independent. But this is paradoxical; for such a principle and substance seems to exist and is sought by nearly all the most refined thinkers as something that exists; for how is there to be order unless there is something eternal and independent and permanent?
¹³

Further,
(25)
if there is a substance or principle of such a nature as that which we are now seeking, and if this is one for all things, and the same for eternal and for perishable things, it is hard to say why in the world, if there is the same principle, some of the things that fall under the principle are eternal, and others are not eternal; this is paradoxical.
(30)
But if there is one principle of perishable and another of eternal things, we shall be in a like difficulty if the principle of perishable things, as well as that of eternal, is eternal; for why, if the principle is eternal, are not the things that fall under the principle also eternal? But if it is perishable another principle is involved to account for it, and another to account for that, and this will go on to infinity.
¹⁴

If on the other hand we are to set up what are thought to be the most unchangeable principles,
(35)
being and unity, firstly, if each of these does not indicate a ‘this’ or substance, how will they be separable and independent? Yet we expect the eternal and primary principles to be so.
[1060b]
But if each of them does signify a ‘this’ or substance, all things that are are substances; for being is predicated of all things (and unity also of some); but that all things that are are substance is false.
(5)
Further, how can they
¹⁵
be right who say that the first principle is unity and this is substance, and generate number as the first product from unity and from matter,
(10)
and assert that number is substance? How are we to think of ‘two’, and each of the other numbers composed of units, as one? On this point neither do they say anything nor is it easy to say anything. But if we are to suppose lines or what comes after these (I mean the primary surfaces) to be principles, these at least are not separable substances, but sections and divisions—the former of surfaces, the latter of bodies (while points are sections and divisions of lines); and further they are limits of these same things; and all these are in other
things and none is separable.
(15)
Further, how are we to suppose that there is a substance of unity and the point? Every substance comes into being by a gradual process, but a point does not; for the point is a division.
¹⁶

A further difficulty is raised by the fact that all knowledge is of universals and of the ‘such’,
(20)
but substance is not a universal, but is rather a ‘this’—a separable thing, so that if there is knowledge about the first principles, the question arises, how are we to suppose the first principle to be substance?
¹⁷

Further, is there anything apart from the concrete thing (by which I mean the matter and that which is joined with it), or not? If not,
(25)
we are met by the objection that all things that
are
in matter are perishable. But if there
is
something, it must be the form or shape. Now it is hard to determine in which cases this exists apart and in which it does not; for in some cases the form is evidently not separable, e. g. in the case of a house.
¹⁸

Further, are the principles the same in kind or in number? If they are one in number,
(30)
all things will be the same.
¹⁹