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no others, but gave separate existence to these universally predicated
substances, so that it followed that universals and individuals were almost the
same sort of thing. This in itself, then, would be one difficulty in the view we
have mentioned.
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10
Let us now mention a point which presents a certain difficulty both to those
who believe in the Ideas and to those who do not, and which was stated
before, at the beginning, among the problems. If we do not suppose
substances to be separate, and in the way in which individual things are said
to be separate, we shall destroy substance in the sense in which we understand
‘substance’; but if we conceive substances to be separable, how are we to
conceive their elements and their principles?
If they are individual and not universal, (a) real things will be just of the
same number as the elements, and (b) the elements will not be knowable. For
(a) let the syllables in speech be substances, and their elements elements of
substances; then there must be only one ‘ba’ and one of each of the syllables,
since they are not universal and the same in form but each is one in number
and a ‘this’ and not a kind possessed of a common name (and again they
suppose that the ‘just what a thing is’ is in each case one). And if the syllables
are unique, so too are the parts of which they consist; there will not, then, be
more a’s than one, nor more than one of any of the other elements, on the
same principle on which an identical syllable cannot exist in the plural
number. But if this is so, there will not be other things existing besides the
elements, but only the elements.
(b) Again, the elements will not be even knowable; for they are not
universal, and knowledge is of universals. This is clear from demonstrations
and from definitions; for we do not conclude that this triangle has its angles
equal to two right angles, unless every triangle has its angles equal to two
right angles, nor that this man is an animal, unless every man is an animal.
But if the principles are universal, either the substances composed of them
are also universal, or non-substance will be prior to substance; for the
universal is not a substance, but the element or principle is universal, and the
element or principle is prior to the things of which it is the principle or
element.
All these difficulties follow naturally, when they make the Ideas out of
1733
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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