Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l7/c17

Chapter 17

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τί δὲ χρὴ λέγειν καὶ ὁποῖόν τι τὴν οὐσίαν, πάλιν ἄλλην οἷον ἀρχὴν ποιησάμενοι λέγωμεν: ἴσως γὰρ ἐκ τούτων ἔσται δῆλον καὶ περὶ ἐκείνης τῆς οὐσίας ἥτις ἐστὶ κεχωρισμένη τῶν αἰσθητῶν οὐσιῶν. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἡ οὐσία ἀρχὴ καὶ [10] αἰτία τις ἐστίν, ἐντεῦθεν μετιτέον.	Quid autem oportet dicere et quale quid substantiam, iterum aliud velut principium facientes dicamus; forsan enim ex hiis erit palam et de illa substantia quae est separata a sensibilibus substantiis. Quoniam ergo substantia principium et causa ↵ quaedam est, hinc est procedendum.	Chapter 17. Let us state what, i.e. what kind of thing, substance should be said to be, taking once more another starting-point; for perhaps from this we shall get a clear view also of that substance which exists apart from sensible substances. Since, then, substance is a principle and a cause, let us pursue it from this starting-point.
ζητεῖται δὲ τὸ διὰ τί ἀεὶ οὕτως, διὰ τί ἄλλο ἄλλῳ τινὶ ὑπάρχει. τὸ γὰρ ζητεῖν διὰ τί ὁ μουσικὸς ἄνθρωπος μουσικὸς ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, ἤτοι ἐστὶ τὸ εἰρημένον ζητεῖν, διὰ τί ὁ ἄνθρωπος μουσικός ἐστιν, ἢ ἄλλο. τὸ μὲν οὖν διὰ τί αὐτό ἐστιν αὐτό, οὐδέν ἐστι [15] ζητεῖν (δεῖ γὰρ τὸ ὅτι καὶ τὸ εἶναι ὑπάρχειν δῆλα ὄντα—λέγω δ᾽ οἷον ὅτι ἡ σελήνη ἐκλείπει—, αὐτὸ δὲ ὅτι αὐτό, εἷς λόγος καὶ μία αἰτία ἐπὶ πάντων, διὰ τί ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος ἢ ὁ μουσικὸς μουσικός, πλὴν εἴ τις λέγοι ὅτι ἀδιαίρετον πρὸς αὑτὸ ἕκαστον, τοῦτο δ᾽ ἦν τὸ ἑνὶ εἶναι: ἀλλὰ τοῦτο [20] κοινόν γε κατὰ πάντων καὶ σύντομον): ζητήσειε δ᾽ ἄν τις διὰ τί ἅνθρωπός ἐστι ζῷον τοιονδί. τοῦτο μὲν τοίνυν δῆλον, ὅτι οὐ ζητεῖ διὰ τί ὅς ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν: τὶ ἄρα κατά τινος ζητεῖ διὰ τί ὑπάρχει (ὅτι δ᾽ ὑπάρχει, δεῖ δῆλον εἶναι: εἰ γὰρ μὴ οὕτως, οὐδὲν ζητεῖ), οἷον διὰ τί [25] βροντᾷ; διὰ τί ψόφος γίγνεται ἐν τοῖς νέφεσιν; ἄλλο γὰρ οὕτω κατ᾽ ἄλλου ἐστὶ τὸ ζητούμενον. καὶ διὰ τί ταδί, οἷον πλίνθοι καὶ λίθοι, οἰκία ἐστίν; φανερὸν τοίνυν ὅτι ζητεῖ τὸ αἴτιον: τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι, ὡς εἰπεῖν λογικῶς, ὃ ἐπ᾽ ἐνίων μέν ἐστι τίνος ἕνεκα, οἷον ἴσως ἐπ᾽ οἰκίας ἢ κλίνης, [30] ἐπ᾽ ἐνίων δὲ τί ἐκίνησε πρῶτον: αἴτιον γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο. ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν τοιοῦτον αἴτιον ἐπὶ τοῦ γίγνεσθαι ζητεῖται καὶ φθείρεσθαι, θάτερον δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ εἶναι.	Quaeritur autem ipsum propter quid semper sic: propter quid aliud aliquid alii alicui inest? Nam quaerere propter quid musicus homo musicus homo est, aut est quod dictum est quaerere, propter quid homo musicus est, aut aliud. Hoc quidem igitur propter quid ipsum est ipsum, nihil est quaerere. Oportet enim ipsum quia ↵ et ipsum esse existere manifesta entia; dico autem ut quia luna patitur eclipsim. Ipsius autem quia ipsum una ratio et una causa in omnibus (propter quid homo homo aut musicus ƿ musicus, nisi si quis dicat quia indivisibile ad ipsum ↵ unumquodque, hoc autem erat unum esse. Sed hoc communeque de omnibus et quod breve. Quaeret autem aliquis propter quid homo est animal tale. Hoc quidem igitur palam, quia non quaerit quare qui est homo homo est; aliquid ergo de aliquo quaerit propter quid existit. Quia vero existit, oportet manifestum esse; nam si non ita, nihil quaerit. Ut propter ↵ quid tonat? Quia sonitus fit in nubibus. Aliud enim ita de alio est quod quaeritur. Et propter quid haec, puta lateres et lapides, domus sunt? Palam igitur quod quaerit causam. Hoc autem est quod quid erat esse, ut est dicere logice, quod quod in quibusdam quidem est cuius causa, ut forsan in domo aut ↵ in lecto, in quibusdam vero quid movit primum; nam causa et hoc. Sed talis quidem causa in fieri quaeritur et corrumpi, altera vero et in esse.	The ‘why’ is always sought in this form—’why does one thing attach to some other?’ For to inquire why the musical man is a musical man, is either to inquire—as we have said why the man is musical, or it is something else. Now ‘why a thing is itself’ is a meaningless inquiry (for (to give meaning to the question ‘why’) the fact or the existence of the thing must already be evident – e.g. that the moon is eclipsed – but the fact that a thing is itself is the single reason and the single cause to be given in answer to all such questions as why the man is man, or the musician musical’, unless one were to answer ‘because each thing is inseparable from itself, and its being one just meant this’; this, however, is common to all things and is a short and easy way with the question). But we can inquire why man is an animal of such and such a nature. This, then, is plain, that we are not inquiring why he who is a man is a man. We are inquiring, then, why something is predicable of something (that it is predicable must be clear; for if not, the inquiry is an inquiry into nothing). E.g. why does it thunder? This is the same as ‘why is sound produced in the clouds?’ Thus the inquiry is about the predication of one thing of another. And why are these things, i.e. bricks and stones, a house? Plainly we are seeking the cause. And this is the essence (to speak abstractly), which in some cases is the end, e.g. perhaps in the case of a house or a bed, and in some cases is the first mover; for this also is a cause. But while the efficient cause is sought in the case of genesis and destruction, the final cause is sought in the case of being also.
λανθάνει δὲ μάλιστα τὸ ζητούμενον ἐν τοῖς μὴ κατ᾽ ἀλλήλων λεγομένοις, [1041β] [1] οἷον ἄνθρωπος τί ἐστι ζητεῖται διὰ τὸ ἁπλῶς λέγεσθαι ἀλλὰ μὴ διορίζειν ὅτι τάδε τόδε.	Latet autem maxime quod quaeritur in hiis quae non de ↵ aliis dicuntur, ut homo quid est quaeritur, propter simpliciter dici sed non diffinire quia haec aut hoc.	The object of the inquiry is most easily overlooked where one term is not expressly predicated of another (e.g. when [41b] we inquire ‘what man is’), because we do not distinguish and do not say definitely that certain elements make up a certain whole.
ἀλλὰ δεῖ διαρθρώσαντας ζητεῖν: εἰ δὲ μή, κοινὸν τοῦ μηθὲν ζητεῖν καὶ τοῦ ζητεῖν τι γίγνεται. ἐπεὶ δὲ δεῖ ἔχειν τε καὶ ὑπάρχειν τὸ [5] εἶναι, δῆλον δὴ ὅτι τὴν ὕλην ζητεῖ διὰ τί <τί> ἐστιν: οἷον οἰκία ταδὶ διὰ τί; ὅτι ὑπάρχει ὃ ἦν οἰκίᾳ εἶναι. καὶ ἄνθρωπος τοδί, ἢ τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο τοδὶ ἔχον. ὥστε τὸ αἴτιον ζητεῖται τῆς ὕλης (τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ εἶδος) ᾧ τί ἐστιν: τοῦτο δ᾽ ἡ οὐσία.	Sed oportet corrigentes quaerere; si autem non, commune eius quod nihil quaerere et eius quod quaerere aliquid fit. Quoniam vero oportet habere ↵ quae et existere ipsum esse, palam itaque quia materiam quaerit propter quid est; ut domus haec propter quid? Quia haec existunt, quod erat domui esse. Et homo hic aut corpus hoc hoc habens? Quare causa quaeritur materiae, hoc autem est species, ƿ qua aliquid est; hoc autem substantia.	But we must articulate our meaning before we begin to inquire; if not, the inquiry is on the border-line between being a search for something and a search for nothing. Since we must have the existence of the thing as something given, clearly the question is why the matter is some definite thing; e.g. why are these materials a house? Because that which was the essence of a house is present. And why is this individual thing, or this body having this form, a man? Therefore what we seek is the cause, i.e. the form, by reason of which the matter is some definite thing; and this is the substance of the thing.
φανερὸν τοίνυν ὅτι ἐπὶ τῶν ἁπλῶν οὐκ ἔστι ζήτησις [10] οὐδὲ δίδαξις, ἀλλ᾽ ἕτερος τρόπος τῆς ζητήσεως τῶν τοιούτων.	Palam igitur quod in simplicibus non est quaestio nec doctrina, sed alter modus ↵ quaestionis talium.	Evidently, then, in the case of simple terms no inquiry nor teaching is possible; our attitude towards such things is other than that of inquiry.
ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸ ἔκ τινος σύνθετον οὕτως ὥστε ἓν εἶναι τὸ πᾶν, [ἂν] μὴ ὡς σωρὸς ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἡ συλλαβή—ἡ δὲ συλλαβὴ οὐκ ἔστι τὰ στοιχεῖα, οὐδὲ τῷ <βα> ταὐτὸ τὸ <β> καὶ <α>, οὐδ᾽ ἡ σὰρξ πῦρ καὶ γῆ (διαλυθέντων γὰρ τὰ μὲν οὐκέτι ἔστιν, [15] οἷον ἡ σὰρξ καὶ ἡ συλλαβή, τὰ δὲ στοιχεῖα ἔστι, καὶ τὸ πῦρ καὶ ἡ γῆ): ἔστιν ἄρα τι ἡ συλλαβή, οὐ μόνον τὰ στοιχεῖα τὸ φωνῆεν καὶ ἄφωνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕτερόν τι, καὶ ἡ σὰρξ οὐ μόνον πῦρ καὶ γῆ ἢ τὸ θερμὸν καὶ ψυχρὸν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕτερόν τι	Quoniam vero ex aliquo compositum sic ut unum sit omne, sed non ut cumulus sed ut syllaba – syllaba autem non est elementa, nec idem b et a, nec caro ignis et terra; dissolutis enim haec quidem non adhuc sunt, ut caro et syllaba, ↵ elementa vero sunt, et ignis et terra. Est igitur aliquid syllaba, non solum elementa (vocalis et consonans) sed et alterum aliquid, et caro non solum ignis et terra aut calidum et frigidum sed et alterum aliquid.	Since that which is compounded out of something so that the whole is one, not like a heap but like a syllable – now the syllable is not its elements, ba is not the same as b and a, nor is flesh fire and earth (for when these are separated the wholes, i.e. the flesh and the syllable, no longer exist, but the elements of the syllable exist, and so do fire and earth); the syllable, then, is something – not only its elements (the vowel and the consonant) but also something else, and the flesh is not only fire and earth or the hot and the cold, but also something else:
—εἰ τοίνυν ἀνάγκη κἀκεῖνο ἢ στοιχεῖον [20] ἢ ἐκ στοιχείων εἶναι, εἰ μὲν στοιχεῖον, πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς ἔσται λόγος (ἐκ τούτου γὰρ καὶ πυρὸς καὶ γῆς ἔσται ἡ σὰρξ καὶ ἔτι ἄλλου, ὥστ᾽ εἰς ἄπειρον βαδιεῖται): εἰ δὲ ἐκ στοιχείου, δῆλον ὅτι οὐχ ἑνὸς ἀλλὰ πλειόνων, ἢ ἐκεῖνο αὐτὸ ἔσται, ὥστε πάλιν ἐπὶ τούτου τὸν αὐτὸν ἐροῦμεν λόγον καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς [25] σαρκὸς ἢ συλλαβῆς.	Si igitur necesse et illud aut elementum aut ex elementis esse, si quidem elementum, iterum ↵ eadem ratio erit; ex hoc enim et igne et terra erit caro et adhuc alio. Quare in infinitum ibit.Si vero ex elemento, palam quia non uno sed pluribus; aut illud ipsum erit. Quare rursum in hoc eandem dicemus rationem et in carne vel syllaba.	– if, then, that something must itself be either an element or composed of elements, (1) if it is an element the same argument will again apply; for flesh will consist of this and fire and earth and something still further, so that the process will go on to infinity. But (2) if it is a compound, clearly it will be a compound not of one but of more than one (or else that one will be the thing itself), so that again in this case we can use the same argument as in the case of flesh or of the syllable.
δόξειε δ᾽ ἂν εἶναι τὶ τοῦτο καὶ οὐ στοιχεῖον, καὶ αἴτιόν γε τοῦ εἶναι τοδὶ μὲν σάρκα τοδὶ δὲ συλλαβήν: ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων. οὐσία δὲ ἑκάστου μὲν τοῦτο (τοῦτο γὰρ αἴτιον πρῶτον τοῦ εἶναι)—	↵ Videbitur autem utique esse aliquid hoc et elementum et causa essendi hoc quidem carnem hoc vero syllabam. Similiter autem et in aliis.Substantia autem uniuscuiusque quidem hoc; hoc enim causa prima essendi.	But it would seem that this ‘other’ is something, and not an element, and that it is the cause which makes this thing flesh and that a syllable. And similarly in all other cases. And this is the substance of each thing (for this is the primary cause of its being);
ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἔνια οὐκ οὐσίαι τῶν πραγμάτων, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσαι οὐσίαι, κατὰ φύσιν [30] καὶ φύσει συνεστήκασι, φανείη ἂν [καὶ] αὕτη ἡ φύσις οὐσία, ἥ ἐστιν οὐ στοιχεῖον ἀλλ᾽ ἀρχή—: στοιχεῖον δ᾽ ἐστὶν εἰς ὃ διαιρεῖται ἐνυπάρχον ὡς ὕλην, οἷον τῆς συλλαβῆς τὸ <α> καὶ τὸ <β>.	Quoniam vero quaedam non substantiae rerum, sed quaecumque substantiae secundum naturam et ↵ natura constitutae sunt, manifestabitur utique quibusdam haec natura substantia, quae est non elementum sed principium.Elementum vero est in quod dividitur inexistens ut materiam, puta syllabe quod a et b.	and since, while some things are not substances, as many as are substances are formed in accordance with a nature of their own and by a process of nature, their substance would seem to be this kind of ‘nature’, which is not an element but a principle. An element, on the other hand, is that into which a thing is divided and which is present in it as matter; e.g. a and b are the elements of the syllable.