第10章

Therearemanysensesinwhichathingmaybesaidto’be’，but

allthat’is’isrelatedtoonecentralpoint，onedefinitekindof

thing，andisnotsaidto’be’byamereambiguity。Everythingwhich

ishealthyisrelatedtohealth，onethinginthesensethatit

preserveshealth，anotherinthesensethatitproducesit，anotherin

thesensethatitisasymptomofhealth，anotherbecauseitis

capableofit。Andthatwhichismedicalisrelativetothemedical

art，onethingbeingcalledmedicalbecauseitpossessesit，another

becauseitisnaturallyadaptedtoit，anotherbecauseitisa

functionofthemedicalart。Andweshallfindotherwordsused

similarlytothese。So，too，therearemanysensesinwhichathingis

saidtobe，butallrefertoonestarting-point；somethingsare

saidtobebecausetheyaresubstances，othersbecausetheyare

affectionsofsubstance，othersbecausetheyareaprocesstowards

substance，ordestructionsorprivationsorqualitiesofsubstance，or

productiveorgenerativeofsubstance，orofthingswhicharerelative

tosubstance，ornegationsofoneofthesethingofsubstance

itself。Itisforthisreasonthatwesayevenofnon-beingthatitis

nonbeing。As，then，thereisonesciencewhichdealswithall

healthythings，thesameappliesintheothercasesalso。Fornotonly

inthecaseofthingswhichhaveonecommonnotiondoesthe

investigationbelongtoonescience，butalsointhecaseofthings

whicharerelatedtoonecommonnature；foreventheseinasensehave

onecommonnotion。Itisclearthenthatitistheworkofonescience

alsotostudythethingsthatare，quabeing-Buteverywherescience

dealschieflywiththatwhichisprimary，andonwhichtheother

thingsdepend，andinvirtueofwhichtheygettheirnames。If，

then，thisissubstance，itwillbeofsubstancesthatthephilosopher

mustgrasptheprinciplesandthecauses。

Nowforeachoneclassofthings，asthereisoneperception，so

thereisonescience，asforinstancegrammar，beingonescience，

investigatesallarticulatesounds。Hencetoinvestigateallthe

speciesofbeingquabeingistheworkofasciencewhichis

genericallyone，andtoinvestigatetheseveralspeciesistheworkof

thespecificpartsofthescience。

If，now，beingandunityarethesameandareonethinginthe

sensethattheyareimpliedinoneanotherasprincipleandcauseare，

notinthesensethattheyareexplainedbythesamedefinition

(thoughitmakesnodifferenceevenifwesupposethemtobelike

that-infactthiswouldevenstrengthenourcase)；for’oneman’and

’man’arethesamething，andsoare’existentman’and’man’，andthe

doublingofthewordsin’onemanandoneexistentman’doesnot

expressanythingdifferent(itisclearthatthetwothingsarenot

separatedeitherincomingtobeorinceasingtobe)；andsimilarly

’oneexistentman’addsnothingto’existentman’，andthatitis

obviousthattheadditioninthesecasesmeansthesamething，and

unityisnothingapartfrombeing；andif，further，thesubstanceof

eachthingisoneinnomerelyaccidentalway，andsimilarlyisfrom

itsverynaturesomethingthatis:-allthisbeingso，theremustbe

exactlyasmanyspeciesofbeingasofunity。Andtoinvestigatethe

essenceoftheseistheworkofasciencewhichisgenericallyone-I

mean，forinstance，thediscussionofthesameandthesimilarandthe

otherconceptsofthissort；andnearlyallcontrariesmaybereferred

tothisorigin；letustakethemashavingbeeninvestigatedinthe

’SelectionofContraries’。

Andthereareasmanypartsofphilosophyastherearekindsof

substance，sothattheremustnecessarilybeamongthemafirst

philosophyandonewhichfollowsthis。Forbeingfallsimmediately

intogenera；forwhichreasonthesciencestoowillcorrespondto

thesegenera。Forthephilosopherislikethemathematician，asthat

wordisused；formathematicsalsohasparts，andthereisafirstand

asecondscienceandothersuccessiveoneswithinthesphereof

mathematics。

Nowsinceitistheworkofonesciencetoinvestigate

opposites，andpluralityisopposedtounity-anditbelongstoone

sciencetoinvestigatethenegationandtheprivationbecausein

bothcaseswearereallyinvestigatingtheonethingofwhichthe

negationortheprivationisanegationorprivation(forweeither

saysimplythatthatthingisnotpresent，orthatitisnotpresent

insomeparticularclass；inthelattercasedifferenceispresent

overandabovewhatisimpliedinnegation；fornegationmeansjust

theabsenceofthethinginquestion，whileinprivationthereisalso

employedanunderlyingnatureofwhichtheprivationis

asserted):-inviewofallthesefacts，thecontrariesofthe

conceptswenamedabove，theotherandthedissimilarandtheunequal，

andeverythingelsewhichisderivedeitherfromtheseorfrom

pluralityandunity，mustfallwithintheprovinceofthescience

abovenamed。Andcontrarietyisoneoftheseconcepts；forcontrariety

isakindofdifference，anddifferenceisakindofotherness。

Therefore，sincetherearemanysensesinwhichathingissaidto

beone，thesetermsalsowillhavemanysenses，butyetitbelongs

toonesciencetoknowthemall；foratermbelongstodifferent

sciencesnotifithasdifferentsenses，butifithasnotonemeaning

anditsdefinitionscannotbereferredtoonecentralmeaning。And

sinceallthingsarereferredtothatwhichisprimary，asfor

instanceallthingswhicharecalledonearereferredtotheprimary

one，wemustsaythatthisholdsgoodalsoofthesameandtheother

andofcontrariesingeneral；sothatafterdistinguishingthevarious

sensesofeach，wemustthenexplainbyreferencetowhatisprimary

inthecaseofeachofthepredicatesinquestion，sayinghowtheyare

relatedtoit；forsomewillbecalledwhattheyarecalledbecause

theypossessit，othersbecausetheyproduceit，andothersinother

suchways。

Itisevident，then，thatitbelongstoonesciencetobeable

togiveanaccountoftheseconceptsaswellasofsubstance(thiswas

oneofthequestionsinourbookofproblems)，andthatitisthe

functionofthephilosophertobeabletoinvestigateallthings。

Forifitisnotthefunctionofthephilosopher，whoisitwhowill

inquirewhetherSocratesandSocratesseatedarethesamething，or

whetheronethinghasonecontrary，orwhatcontrarietyis，orhow

manymeaningsithas？Andsimilarlywithallothersuchquestions。

Since，then，theseareessentialmodificationsofunityquaunity

andofbeingquabeing，notquanumbersorlinesorfire，itis

clearthatitbelongstothissciencetoinvestigateboththe

essenceoftheseconceptsandtheirproperties。Andthosewhostudy

thesepropertieserrnotbyleavingthesphereofphilosophy，butby

forgettingthatsubstance，ofwhichtheyhavenocorrectidea，is

priortotheseotherthings。Fornumberquanumberhaspeculiar

attributes，suchasoddnessandevenness，commensurabilityand

equality，excessanddefect，andthesebelongtonumberseitherin

themselvesorinrelationtooneanother。Andsimilarlythesolid

andthemotionlessandthatwhichisinmotionandtheweightless

andthatwhichhasweighthaveotherpeculiarproperties。Sotoothere

arecertainpropertiespeculiartobeingassuch，anditisabout

thesethatthephilosopherhastoinvestigatethetruth-Anindication

ofthismaybementioned:dialecticiansandsophistsassumethesame

guiseasthephilosopher，forsophisticisWisdomwhichexistsonlyin

semblance，anddialecticiansembraceallthingsintheirdialectic，

andbeingiscommontoallthings；butevidentlytheirdialectic

embracesthesesubjectsbecausethesearepropertophilosophy-For

sophisticanddialecticturnonthesameclassofthingsas

philosophy，butthisdiffersfromdialecticinthenatureofthe

facultyrequiredandfromsophisticinrespectofthepurposeofthe

philosophiclife。Dialecticismerelycriticalwherephilosophyclaims

toknow，andsophisticiswhatappearstobephilosophybutisnot。

Again，inthelistofcontrariesoneofthetwocolumnsis

privative，andallcontrariesarereducibletobeingandnon-being，

andtounityandplurality，asforinstancerestbelongstounity

andmovementtoplurality。Andnearlyallthinkersagreethatbeing

andsubstancearecomposedofcontraries；atleastallnamecontraries

astheirfirstprinciples-somenameoddandeven，somehotandcold，

somelimitandtheunlimited，someloveandstrife。Andalltheothers

aswellareevidentlyreducibletounityandplurality(thisreduction

wemusttakeforgranted)，andtheprinciplesstatedbyotherthinkers

fallentirelyundertheseastheirgenera。Itisobviousthenfrom

theseconsiderationstoothatitbelongstoonesciencetoexamine

beingquabeing。Forallthingsareeithercontrariesorcomposedof

contraries，andunityandpluralityarethestarting-pointsofall

contraries。Andthesebelongtoonescience，whethertheyhaveorhave

notonesinglemeaning。Probablythetruthisthattheyhavenot；

yetevenif’one’hasseveralmeanings，theothermeaningswillbe

relatedtotheprimarymeaning(andsimilarlyinthecaseofthe

contraries)，evenifbeingorunityisnotauniversalandthesamein

everyinstanceorisnotseparablefromtheparticularinstances(as

infactitprobablyisnot；theunityisinsomecasesthatof

commonreference，insomecasesthatofserialsuccession)。Andfor

thisreasonitdoesnotbelongtothegeometertoinquirewhatis

contrarietyorcompletenessorunityorbeingorthesameorthe

other，butonlytopresupposetheseconceptsandreasonfromthis

starting-point——Obviouslythenitistheworkofonescienceto

examinebeingquabeing，andtheattributeswhichbelongtoitqua

being，andthesamesciencewillexaminenotonlysubstancesbut

alsotheirattributes，boththoseabovenamedandtheconcepts’prior’

and’posterior’，’genus’and’species’，’whole’and’part’，andthe

othersofthissort。

Wemuststatewhetheritbelongstooneortodifferentsciences

toinquireintothetruthswhichareinmathematicscalledaxioms，and

intosubstance。Evidently，theinquiryintothesealsobelongsto

onescience，andthatthescienceofthephilosopher；forthesetruths

holdgoodforeverythingthatis，andnotforsomespecialgenusapart

fromothers。Andallmenusethem，becausetheyaretrueofbeing

quabeingandeachgenushasbeing。Butmenusethemjustsofarasto

satisfytheirpurposes；thatis，asfarasthegenustowhichtheir

demonstrationsreferextends。Thereforesincethesetruthsclearly

holdgoodforallthingsquabeing(forthisiswhatiscommonto

them)，tohimwhostudiesbeingquabeingbelongstheinquiryinto

theseaswell。Andforthisreasonnoonewhoisconductinga

specialinquirytriestosayanythingabouttheirtruthor

falsity，-neitherthegeometernorthearithmetician。Somenatural

philosophersindeedhavedoneso，andtheirprocedurewasintelligible

enough；fortheythoughtthattheyalonewereinquiringaboutthe

wholeofnatureandaboutbeing。Butsincethereisonekindof

thinkerwhoisaboveeventhenaturalphilosopher(fornatureis

onlyoneparticulargenusofbeing)，thediscussionofthesetruths

alsowillbelongtohimwhoseinquiryisuniversalanddealswith

primarysubstance。PhysicsalsoisakindofWisdom，butitisnotthe

firstkind-Andtheattemptsofsomeofthosewhodiscussthetermson

whichtruthshouldbeaccepted，areduetoawantoftrainingin

logic；fortheyshouldknowthesethingsalreadywhentheycometoa

specialstudy，andnotbeinquiringintothemwhiletheyarelistening

tolecturesonit。

Evidentlythenitbelongstothephilosopher，i。e。tohimwhois

studyingthenatureofallsubstance，toinquirealsointothe

principlesofsyllogism。Buthewhoknowsbestabouteachgenusmust

beabletostatethemostcertainprinciplesofhissubject，sothat

hewhosesubjectisexistingthingsquaexistingmustbeabletostate

themostcertainprinciplesofallthings。Thisisthephilosopher，

andthemostcertainprincipleofallisthatregardingwhichitis

impossibletobemistaken；forsuchaprinciplemustbeboththe

bestknown(forallmenmaybemistakenaboutthingswhichtheydonot

know)，andnon-hypothetical。Foraprinciplewhicheveryonemusthave

whounderstandsanythingthatis，isnotahypothesis；andthat

whicheveryonemustknowwhoknowsanything，hemustalreadyhave

whenhecomestoaspecialstudy。Evidentlythensuchaprincipleis

themostcertainofall；whichprinciplethisis，letusproceedto

say。Itis，thatthesameattributecannotatthesametimebelongand

notbelongtothesamesubjectandinthesamerespect；wemust