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always be combined, many absurd consequences ensue.
We will now explain what ought to be laid down.
Those predicates, and terms forming the subject of predication, which are
accidental either to the same subject or to one another, do not combine to
form a unity. Take the proposition ‘man is white of complexion and musical’.
Whiteness and being musical do not coalesce to form a unity, for they belong
only accidentally to the same subject. Nor yet, if it were true to say that that
which is white is musical, would the terms ‘musical’ and ‘white’ form a unity,
for it is only incidentally that that which is musical is white; the combination
of the two will, therefore, not form a unity.
Thus, again, whereas, if a man is both good and a shoemaker, we cannot
combine the two propositions and say simply that he is a good shoemaker, we
are, at the same time, able to combine the predicates ‘animal’ and ‘biped’ and
say that a man is an animal with two feet, for these predicates are not
accidental.
Those predicates, again, cannot form a unity, of which the one is implicit in
the other: thus we cannot combine the predicate ‘white’ again and again with
that which already contains the notion ‘white’, nor is it right to call a man an
animal-man or a two-footed man; for the notions ‘animal’ and ‘biped’ are
implicit in the word ‘man’. On the other hand, it is possible to predicate a
term simply of any one instance, and to say that some one particular man is a
man or that some one white man is a white man.
Yet this is not always possible: indeed, when in the adjunct there is some
opposite which involves a contradiction, the predication of the simple term is
impossible. Thus it is not right to call a dead man a man. When, however, this
is not the case, it is not impossible.
Yet the facts of the case might rather be stated thus: when some such
opposite elements are present, resolution is never possible, but when they are
not present, resolution is nevertheless not always possible. Take the
proposition ‘Homer is so-and-so’, say ‘a poet’; does it follow that Homer is,
or does it not? The verb ‘is’ is here used of Homer only incidentally, the
proposition being that Homer is a poet, not that he is, in the independent sense
of the word.
Thus, in the case of those predications which have within them no
contradiction when the nouns are expanded into definitions, and wherein the
predicates belong to the subject in their own proper sense and not in any
indirect way, the individual may be the subject of the simple propositions as
well as of the composite. But in the case of that which is not, it is not true to
say that because it is the object of opinion, it is; for the opinion held about it
47
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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