Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l10/c2

Chapter 2

Greek	Latin	English
κατὰ δὲ τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν φύσιν ζητητέον ποτέρως [10] ἔχει, καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς διαπορήμασιν ἐπήλθομεν τί τὸ ἕν ἐστι καὶ πῶς δεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ λαβεῖν, πότερον ὡς οὐσίας τινὸς οὔσης αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἑνός, καθάπερ οἵ τε Πυθαγόρειοί φασι πρότερον καὶ Πλάτων ὕστερον, ἢ μᾶλλον ὑπόκειταί τις φύσις καὶ [πῶς] δεῖ γνωριμωτέρως λεχθῆναι καὶ μᾶλλον ὥσπερ οἱ [15] περὶ φύσεως: ἐκείνων γὰρ ὁ μέν τις φιλίαν εἶναί φησι τὸ ἓν ὁ δ᾽ ἀέρα ὁ δὲ τὸ ἄπειρον.	Secundum substantiam vero et naturam quaerendum est utro modo se habeat, quemadmodum in dubitationibus trac↵tavimus quid quod unum est et quomodo oportet de eo suscipere: utrum velut substantia aliqua existente ipso uno, sicut pytagorici dicunt prius et Plato posterius, aut magis supponitur aliqua natura, et quomodo oportet notius dici et magis sicut qui de natura; illorum enim alius amicitiam esse dixit quod ↵ unum, alius aerem, alius infinitum.	Chapter 2. With regard to the substance and nature of the one we must ask in which of two ways it exists. This is the very question that we reviewed in our discussion of problems, viz. what the one is and how we must conceive of it, whether we must take the one itself as being a substance (as both the Pythagoreans say in earlier and Plato in later times), or there is, rather, an underlying nature and the one should be described more intelligibly and more in the manner of the physical philosophers, of whom one says the one is love, another says it is air, and another the indefinite.
εἰ δὴ μηδὲν τῶν καθόλου δυνατὸν οὐσίαν εἶναι, καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς περὶ οὐσίας καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὄντος εἴρηται λόγοις, οὐδ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο οὐσίαν ὡς ἕν τι παρὰ τὰ πολλὰ δυνατὸν εἶναι (κοινὸν γάρ) ἀλλ᾽ ἢ κατηγόρημα [20] μόνον, δῆλον ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ ἕν: τὸ γὰρ ὂν καὶ τὸ ἓν καθόλου κατηγορεῖται μάλιστα πάντων. ὥστε οὔτε τὰ γένη φύσεις τινὲς καὶ οὐσίαι χωρισταὶ τῶν ἄλλων εἰσίν, οὔτε τὸ ἓν γένος ἐνδέχεται εἶναι διὰ τὰς αὐτὰς αἰτίας δι᾽ ἅσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ ὂν οὐδὲ τὴν οὐσίαν.	Si itaque nullum universalium esse substantiam est possibile, sicut in sermonibus de substantia et de ente dictum est, nec ipsum hoc substantiam ut unum aliquid praeter multa possibile est esse (commune namque) sed aut predicamentum solum, palam quod neque ipsum unum. Nam ens et unum ↵ universaliter predicantur maxime de omnibus. Quare nec genera nature quaedam et substantiae separabiles ab aliis sunt, nec ƿ unum genus contingit esse propter easdem causas propter quas quidem nec ens nec substantiam.	If, then, no universal can be a substance, as has been said our discussion of substance and being, and if being itself cannot be a substance in the sense of a one apart from the many (for it is common to the many), but is only a predicate, clearly unity also cannot be a substance; for being and unity are the most universal of all predicates. Therefore, on the one hand, genera are not certain entities and substances separable from other things; and on the other hand the one cannot be a genus, for the same reasons for which being and substance cannot be genera.
ἔτι δ᾽ ὁμοίως ἐπὶ πάντων ἀναγκαῖον ἔχειν: [25] λέγεται δ᾽ ἰσαχῶς τὸ ὂν καὶ τὸ ἕν: ὥστ᾽ ἐπείπερ ἐν τοῖς ποιοῖς ἐστί τι τὸ ἓν καί τις φύσις, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ποσοῖς, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ ὅλως ζητητέον τί τὸ ἕν, ὥσπερ καὶ τί τὸ ὄν, ὡς οὐχ ἱκανὸν ὅτι τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἡ φύσις αὐτοῦ. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἔν γε χρώμασίν ἐστι τὸ ἓν χρῶμα, οἷον τὸ λευκόν, εἶτα [30] τὰ ἄλλα ἐκ τούτου καὶ τοῦ μέλανος φαίνεται γιγνόμενα, τὸ δὲ μέλαν στέρησις λευκοῦ ὥσπερ καὶ φωτὸς σκότος [τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ στέρησις φωτός]: ὥστε εἰ τὰ ὄντα ἦν χρώματα, ἦν ἂν ἀριθμός τις τὰ ὄντα, ἀλλὰ τίνων; δῆλον δὴ ὅτι χρωμάτων, καὶ τὸ ἓν ἦν ἄν τι ἕν, οἷον τὸ λευκόν. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ [35] εἰ μέλη τὰ ὄντα ἦν, ἀριθμὸς ἂν ἦν, διέσεων μέντοι, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἀριθμὸς ἡ οὐσία αὐτῶν: καὶ τὸ ἓν ἦν ἄν τι οὗ ἡ οὐσία οὐ τὸ ἓν ἀλλὰ δίεσις. [1054α] [1] ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν φθόγγων στοιχείων ἂν ἦν τὰ ὄντα ἀριθμός, καὶ τὸ ἓν στοιχεῖον φωνῆεν. καὶ εἰ σχήματα εὐθύγραμμα, σχημάτων ἂν ἦν ἀριθμός, καὶ τὸ ἓν τὸ τρίγωνον. ὁ δ᾽ αὐτὸς λόγος καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων [5] γενῶν, ὥστ᾽ εἴπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι καὶ ἐν τοῖς ποιοῖς καὶ ἐν τοῖς ποσοῖς καὶ ἐν κινήσει ἀριθμῶν ὄντων καὶ ἑνός τινος ἐν ἅπασιν ὅ τε ἀριθμὸς τινῶν καὶ τὸ ἓν τὶ ἕν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἡ οὐσία, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν οὐσιῶν ἀνάγκη ὡσαύτως ἔχειν: ὁμοίως γὰρ ἔχει ἐπὶ πάντων. ὅτι μὲν οὖν τὸ ἓν ἐν [10] ἅπαντι γένει ἐστί τις φύσις, καὶ οὐδενὸς τοῦτό γ᾽ αὐτὸ ἡ φύσις τὸ ἕν, φανερόν, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐν χρώμασι χρῶμα ἓν ζητητέον αὐτὸ τὸ ἕν, οὕτω καὶ ἐν οὐσίᾳ οὐσίαν μίαν αὐτὸ τὸ ἕν:	↵ Adhuc autem similiter in omnibus necesse est habere. Dicitur autem equaliter ens et unum. Ergo quoniam in qualitatibus est aliquid quod unum et aliqua natura, et similiter in quantis, palam quod et totaliter quaerendum quid * quod unum, quemadmodum et quid ens, tamquam non * sufficiens quod hoc ipsum * natura ipsius. At vero et in coloribus ↵ est aliquid quod color unus, puta albus, deinde alii ex hoc et nigro videntur geniti, nigrum vero privatio albi est, ut et lucis tenebra (haec enim est privatio lucis). Quare si entia essent colores, essent utique numerus quidam entia. Sed quorum? Palam utique quia colorum; et ipsum unum esset utique * ↵ aliquid unum, puta album. Similiter autem et si melodie entia essent, numerus utique essent, diesum equidem, sed non * numerus substantia ipsorum; et ipsum unum esset utique ali↵quid cuius substantia non ipsum unum sed diesis. Similiter autem et in sonis elementorum utique essent entia numerus, et ipsum unum elementum vocale. Et si figure rectilinee, figurarum utique esset numerus, et ipsum unum trigonum. Eadem ↵ autem ratio et in aliis generibus. Quare siquidem in * passionibus et in qualitatibus et in quantitatibus et in motu numeris existentibus et uno aliquo in omnibus, numerusque * quorunƿdam et ipsum unum aliquid unum, sed non hoc ipsius substantia: et in substantiis necesse est similiter se habere; similiter enim se habet in omnibus. Quod quidem igitur unum in omni genere est quaedam ↵ natura, et nullius natura hoc ipsum * quod unum, palam. Sed sicut in coloribus colorem unum quaerendum ipsum quod unum, sic et in substantia substantiam unam ipsum unum.	Further, the position must be similar in all the kinds of unity. Now unity has just as many meanings as being ; so that since in the sphere of qualities the one is something definite – some particular kind of thing – and similarly in the sphere of quantities, clearly we must in every category ask what the one is, as we must ask what the existent is, since it is not enough to say that its nature is just to be one or existent. But in colours the one is a colour, e.g. white, and then the other colours are observed to be produced out of this and black, and black is the privation of white, as darkness of light. Therefore if all existent things were colours, existent things would have been a number, indeed, but of what? Clearly of colours; and the one would have been a particular one , i.e. white. And similarly if all existing things were tunes, they would have been a number, but a number of quarter-tones, and their essence would not have been number; and the one would have been something whose substance was not to be one but to [54a] be the quarter-tone. And similarly if all existent things had been articulate sounds, they would have been a number of letters, and the one would have been a vowel. And if all existent things were rectilinear figures, they would have been a number of figures, and the one would have been the triangle. And the same argument applies to all other classes. Since, therefore, while there are numbers and a one both in affections and in qualities and in quantities and in movement, in all cases the number is a number of particular things and the one is one something, and its substance is not just to be one, the same must be true of substances also; for it is true of all cases alike. That the one, then, in every class is a definite thing, and in no case is its nature just this, unity, is evident; but as in colours the one-itself which we must seek is one colour, so too in substance the one-itself is one substance.
ὅτι δὲ ταὐτὸ σημαίνει πως τὸ ἓν καὶ τὸ ὄν, δῆλον τῷ τε παρακολουθεῖν ἰσαχῶς ταῖς κατηγορίαις καὶ μὴ εἶναι ἐν [15] μηδεμιᾷ (οἷον οὔτ᾽ ἐν τῇ τί ἐστιν οὔτ᾽ ἐν τῇ ποῖον, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοίως ἔχει ὥσπερ τὸ ὄν) καὶ τῷ μὴ προσκατηγορεῖσθαι ἕτερόν τι τὸ εἷς ἄνθρωπος τοῦ ἄνθρωπος (ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ εἶναι παρὰ τὸ τί ἢ ποῖον ἢ πόσον) καὶ <τῷ εἶναι> τὸ ἑνὶ εἶναι τὸ ἑκάστῳ εἶναι. [20]	Quia vero idem significant aliqualiter unum et ens, palam per assequi equaliter cathegorias * et quia non sunt in nulla ↵ una (ut neque in quid est neque in quale, sed similiter se habet sicut ens) et per hoc quod ‘unus homo’ non predicat alterum aliquid ab homine (quemadmodum nec esse praeter quid aut quale aut quantum) et uni esse id quod unicuique esse.	That in a sense unity means the same as being is clear from the facts that its meanings correspond to the categories one to one, and it is not comprised within any category (e.g. it is comprised neither in what a thing is nor in quality, but is related to them just as being is); that in one man nothing more is predicated than in man (just as being is nothing apart from substance or quality or quantity); and that to be one is just to be a particular thing.