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applied to those things which had both name and definition in common. It is,
therefore, established that in every proposition, of which either substance or a
differentia forms the predicate, these are predicated univocally.
All substance appears to signify that which is individual. In the case of
primary substance this is indisputably true, for the thing is a unit. In the case
of secondary substances, when we speak, for instance, of ‘man’ or ‘animal’,
our form of speech gives the impression that we are here also indicating that
which is individual, but the impression is not strictly true; for a secondary
substance is not an individual, but a class with a certain qualification; for it is
not one and single as a primary substance is; the words ‘man’, ‘animal’, are
predicable of more than one subject.
Yet species and genus do not merely indicate quality, like the term ‘white’;
‘white’ indicates quality and nothing further, but species and genus determine
the quality with reference to a substance: they signify substance qualitatively
differentiated. The determinate qualification covers a larger field in the case
of the genus that in that of the species: he who uses the word ‘animal’ is
herein using a word of wider extension than he who uses the word ‘man’.
Another mark of substance is that it has no contrary. What could be the
contrary of any primary substance, such as the individual man or animal? It
has none. Nor can the species or the genus have a contrary. Yet this
characteristic is not peculiar to substance, but is true of many other things,
such as quantity. There is nothing that forms the contrary of ‘two cubits long’
or of ‘three cubits long’, or of ‘ten’, or of any such term. A man may contend
that ‘much’ is the contrary of ‘little’, or ‘great’ of ‘small’, but of definite
quantitative terms no contrary exists.
Substance, again, does not appear to admit of variation of degree. I do not
mean by this that one substance cannot be more or less truly substance than
another, for it has already been stated’ that this is the case; but that no single
substance admits of varying degrees within itself. For instance, one particular
substance, ‘man’, cannot be more or less man either than himself at some
other time or than some other man. One man cannot be more man than
another, as that which is white may be more or less white than some other
white object, or as that which is beautiful may be more or less beautiful than
some other beautiful object. The same quality, moreover, is said to subsist in a
thing in varying degrees at different times. A body, being white, is said to be
whiter at one time than it was before, or, being warm, is said to be warmer or
less warm than at some other time. But substance is not said to be more or
less that which it is: a man is not more truly a man at one time than he was
before, nor is anything, if it is substance, more or less what it is. Substance,
then, does not admit of variation of degree.
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156