Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l8/c3

Chapter 3

Greek	Latin	English
δεῖ δὲ μὴ ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι ἐνίοτε λανθάνει πότερον σημαίνει [30] τὸ ὄνομα τὴν σύνθετον οὐσίαν ἢ τὴν ἐνέργειαν καὶ τὴν μορφήν, οἷον ἡ οἰκία πότερον σημεῖον τοῦ κοινοῦ ὅτι σκέπασμα ἐκ πλίνθων καὶ λίθων ὡδὶ κειμένων, ἢ τῆς ἐνεργείας καὶ τοῦ εἴδους ὅτι σκέπασμα, καὶ γραμμὴ πότερον δυὰς ἐν μήκει ἢ [ὅτι] δυάς, καὶ ζῷον πότερον ψυχὴ ἐν [35] σώματι ἢ ψυχή: αὕτη γὰρ οὐσία καὶ ἐνέργεια σώματός τινος.	ƿ Oportet autem non ignorare quia aliquando latet utrum ↵ significet nomen compositam substantiam aut actum et formam. Ut domus utrum signum communis * quia tegumentum ex lateribus et iapidibus sic positis, aut actus et speciei quia tegumentum; et linea utrum dualitas in longitudine aut quia ↵ dualitas, et animal utrum * anima in corpore aut anima; haec namque substantia et actus corporis alicuius.	Chapter 3. We must not fail to notice that sometimes it is not clear whether a name means the composite substance, or the actuality or form, e.g. whether house is a sign for the composite thing, a covering consisting of bricks and stones laid thus and thus , or for the actuality or form, a covering , and whether a line is twoness in length or twoness , and whether an animal is soul in a body or a soul _ ; for soul is the substance or actuality of some body.
εἴη δ᾽ ἂν καὶ ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις τὸ ζῷον, οὐχ ὡς ἑνὶ λόγῳ λεγόμενον ἀλλ᾽ ὡς πρὸς ἕν.	Erit autem utique et in utrisque animal, non ut una ratione dictum sed quasi ad unum.	Animal might even be applied to both, not as something definable by one formula, but as related to a single thing.
ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πρὸς μέν τι ἄλλο διαφέρει, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ζήτησιν τῆς οὐσίας τῆς αἰσθητῆς οὐδέν: [1043β] [1] τὸ γὰρ τί ἦν εἶναι τῷ εἴδει καὶ τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ ὑπάρχει. ψυχὴ μὲν γὰρ καὶ ψυχῇ εἶναι ταὐτόν, ἀνθρώπῳ δὲ καὶ ἄνθρωπος οὐ ταὐτόν, εἰ μὴ καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ ἄνθρωπος λεχθήσεται: οὕτω δὲ τινὶ μὲν τινὶ δ᾽ οὔ.	Sed * haec * ad aliquid aliud quidem differunt *, ↵ ad questionem vero substantiae sensibilis nihil; nam quod quid erat esse speciei et actui existit. Nam anima et anime esse idem, homini vero esse et homo non idem, nisi et anima homo dicatur; sic autem alicui quidem, alicui vero non.	But this question, while important for another purpose, is of no importance for the inquiry into sensible substance; [43b] for the essence certainly attaches to the form and the actuality. For soul and to be soul are the same, but to be man and man are not the same, unless even the bare soul is to be called man; and thus on one interpretation the thing is the same as its essence, and on another it is not.
οὐ φαίνεται [5] δὴ ζητοῦσιν ἡ συλλαβὴ ἐκ τῶν στοιχείων οὖσα καὶ συνθέσεως, οὐδ᾽ ἡ οἰκία πλίνθοι τε καὶ σύνθεσις. καὶ τοῦτο ὀρθῶς: οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ σύνθεσις οὐδ᾽ ἡ μῖξις ἐκ τούτων ὧν ἐστὶ σύνθεσις ἢ μῖξις. ὁμοίως δὲ οὐδὲ τῶν ἄλλων οὐθέν, οἷον εἰ ὁ οὐδὸς θέσει, οὐκ ἐκ τοῦ οὐδοῦ ἡ θέσις ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον [10] οὗτος ἐξ ἐκείνης. οὐδὲ δὴ ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστι τὸ ζῷον καὶ δίπουν, ἀλλά τι δεῖ εἶναι ὃ παρὰ ταῦτά ἐστιν, εἰ ταῦθ᾽ ὕλη, οὔτε δὲ στοιχεῖον οὔτ᾽ ἐκ στοιχείου, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ οὐσία: ὃ ἐξαιροῦντες [13] τὴν ὕλην λέγουσιν. εἰ οὖν τοῦτ᾽ αἴτιον τοῦ εἶναι, καὶ οὐσία τοῦτο, αὐτὴν ἂν τὴν οὐσίαν οὐ λέγοιεν.	↵ Non videtur itaque quaerentibus sillaba ex elementis ens et compositione, nec domus lateres et compositio. Et hoc recte; non enim compositio et mixtio ex hiis quorum est compositio aut mixtio. Similiter autem nec aliorum nil; ut limes positione, ↵ non ex limine positio sed magis hoc ex illa. Nec itaque homo est animal et bipes, sed aliquid oportet esse quod praeter haec est, si haec materiae: neque autem elementum nec * ex elementis, sed substantia; quod auferentes materiam dicunt. Si ergo hoc causa ipsius esse, et substantia hoc, ipsam utique substantiam non dicent.	If we examine we find that the syllable does not consist of the letters + juxtaposition, nor is the house bricks + juxtaposition. And this is right; for the juxtaposition or mixing does not consist of those things of which it is the juxtaposition or mixing. And the same is true in all other cases; e.g. if the threshold is characterized by its position, the position is not constituted by the threshold, but rather the latter is constituted by the former. Nor is man animal + biped, but there must be something besides these, if these are matter,-something which is neither an element in the whole nor a compound, but is the substance; but this people eliminate, and state only the matter. If, then, this is the cause of the thing _ s being, and if the cause of its being is its substance, they will not be stating the substance itself.
(ἀνάγκη δὴ ταύτην ἢ [15] ἀΐδιον εἶναι ἢ φθαρτὴν ἄνευ τοῦ φθείρεσθαι καὶ γεγονέναι ἄνευ τοῦ γίγνεσθαι. δέδεικται δὲ καὶ δεδήλωται ἐν ἄλλοις ὅτι τὸ εἶδος οὐθεὶς ποιεῖ οὐδὲ γεννᾷ, ἀλλὰ ποιεῖται τόδε, γίγνεται δὲ τὸ ἐκ τούτων.	↵ Necessarium itaque hanc aut sempiternam esse aut corruptibilem sine corrumpi et factam esse sine fieri. Monstratum ƿ autem est et declaratum in aliis quia speciem nullus facit nec generatur, sed efficitur hoc, fit autem quod * ex hiis.	(This, then, must either be eternal or it must be destructible without being ever in course of being destroyed, and must have come to be without ever being in course of coming to be. But it has been proved and explained elsewhere that no one makes or begets the form, but it is the individual that is made, i.e. the complex of form and matter that is generated.
εἰ δ᾽ εἰσὶ τῶν φθαρτῶν αἱ οὐσίαι χωρισταί, οὐδέν πω δῆλον:	Si autem sunt corruptibilium substantiae separabiles, nondum * palam.	Whether the substances of destructible things can exist apart, is not yet at all clear;
πλὴν ὅτι γ᾽ ἐνίων οὐκ ἐνδέχεται [20] δῆλον, ὅσα μὴ οἷόν τε παρὰ τὰ τινὰ εἶναι, οἷον οἰκίαν ἢ σκεῦος.	At tamen quia quorundam non contingit, palam: quaecumque ↵ non possibile est praeter ipsa aliqua esse, ut domum aut uas.	except that obviously this is impossible in some cases-in the case of things which cannot exist apart from the individual instances, e.g. house or utensil.
ἴσως μὲν οὖν οὐδ᾽ οὐσίαι εἰσὶν οὔτ᾽ αὐτὰ ταῦτα οὔτε τι τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα μὴ φύσει συνέστηκεν: τὴν γὰρ φύσιν μόνην ἄν τις θείη τὴν ἐν τοῖς φθαρτοῖς οὐσίαν.)	Forsan quidem igitur nec substantiae sunt neque aliquid ipsa haec nec aliquid aliorum quaecumque non natura constituta sunt; naturam enim solam utique quis ponet eorum quae in corruptibilibus substantiam.	Perhaps, indeed, neither these things themselves, nor any of the other things which are not formed by nature, are substances at all; for one might say that the nature in natural objects is the only substance to be found in destructible things.)
ὥστε ἡ ἀπορία ἣν οἱ Ἀντισθένειοι καὶ οἱ οὕτως ἀπαίδευτοι ἠπόρουν [25] ἔχει τινὰ καιρόν, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι τὸ τί ἔστιν ὁρίσασθαι (τὸν γὰρ ὅρον λόγον εἶναι μακρόν), ἀλλὰ ποῖον μέν τί ἐστιν ἐνδέχεται καὶ διδάξαι, ὥσπερ ἄργυρον, τί μέν ἐστιν οὔ, ὅτι δ᾽ οἷον καττίτερος: ὥστ᾽ οὐσίας ἔστι μὲν ἧς ἐνδέχεται εἶναι ὅρον καὶ λόγον, οἷον τῆς συνθέτου, ἐάν τε αἰσθητὴ [30] ἐάν τε νοητὴ ᾖ: ἐξ ὧν δ᾽ αὕτη πρώτων, οὐκέτι, εἴπερ τὶ κατὰ τινὸς σημαίνει ὁ λόγος ὁ ὁριστικὸς καὶ δεῖ τὸ μὲν ὥσπερ ὕλην εἶναι τὸ δὲ ὡς μορφήν.	Quare dubitatio quam antistenici et sic indocti dubitaverunt habet tempus quoddam: quia non est ipsum quid est diffinire ↵ (terminum enim rationem esse longam), sed quale quidem aliquid est contingit et docere; sicut * argentum quid quidem est non, quia autem quale stagnum. Quare substantiae est quidem cuius contingit esse terminum et rationem, puta composite, sive sensibilis fuerit sive intellectualis; ^primorum autem ↵ ex quibus haec non est, siquidem aliquid de aliquo significat ratio diffinitiva et oportet hoc quidem ut materiam esse illud vero ut formam.	Therefore the difficulty which used to be raised by the school of Antisthenes and other such uneducated people has a certain timeliness. They said that the what cannot be defined (for the definition so called is a long rigmarole ) but of what sort a thing, e.g. silver, is, they thought it possible actually to explain, not saying what it is, but that it is like tin. Therefore one kind of substance can be defined and formulated, i.e. the composite kind, whether it be perceptible or intelligible; but the primary parts of which this consists cannot be defined, since a definitory formula predicates something of something, and one part of the definition must play the part of matter and the other that of form.
φανερὸν δὲ καὶ διότι, εἴπερ εἰσί πως ἀριθμοὶ αἱ οὐσίαι, οὕτως εἰσὶ καὶ οὐχ ὥς τινες λέγουσι μονάδων: ὅ τε γὰρ ὁρισμὸς ἀριθμός τις: [35] διαιρετός τε γὰρ καὶ εἰς ἀδιαίρετα (οὐ γὰρ ἄπειροι οἱ λόγοι), καὶ ὁ ἀριθμὸς δὲ τοιοῦτον.	↵Palam autem et quia, si sint aliqualiter numeri substantiae, sic sunt et non ut quidam dicunt unitatum. Nam diffinitio numerus quidam; divisibilisque enim et in indivisibilia (non ↵ enim infinite rationes), et numerus autem tale.	It is also obvious that, if substances are in a sense numbers, they are so in this sense and not, as some say, as numbers of units. For a definition is a sort of number; for (1) it is divisible, and into indivisible parts (for definitory formulae are not infinite), and number also is of this nature.
καὶ ὥσπερ οὐδ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ἀριθμοῦ ἀφαιρεθέντος τινὸς ἢ προστεθέντος ἐξ ὧν ὁ ἀριθμός ἐστιν, οὐκέτι ὁ αὐτὸς ἀριθμός ἐστιν ἀλλ᾽ ἕτερος, κἂν τοὐλάχιστον ἀφαιρεθῇ ἢ προστεθῇ, [1044α] [1] οὕτως οὐδὲ ὁ ὁρισμὸς οὐδὲ τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι οὐκέτι ἔσται ἀφαιρεθέντος τινὸς ἢ προστεθέντος.	Et quemadmodum nec a numero ablato aliquo aut addito ex quibus numerus est, non adhuc idem numerus est sed alter, quamvis minimum auferatur aut addatur, sic nec diffinitio nec quod quid ↵ erat esse non adhuc erit ablato aliquo aut addito.	And (2) as, when one of the parts of which a number consists has been taken from or added to the number, it is no longer the same number, but a different one, even if it is the very smallest part that has been taken [44a] away or added, so the definition and the essence will no longer remain when anything has been taken away or added.
καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν δεῖ εἶναί τι ᾧ εἷς, ὃ νῦν οὐκ ἔχουσι λέγειν τίνι εἷς, εἴπερ ἐστὶν εἷς (ἢ γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀλλ᾽ οἷον σωρός, ἢ [5] εἴπερ ἐστί, λεκτέον τί τὸ ποιοῦν ἓν ἐκ πολλῶν): καὶ ὁ ὁρισμὸς εἷς ἐστίν, ὁμοίως δὲ οὐδὲ τοῦτον ἔχουσι λέγειν. καὶ τοῦτο εἰκότως συμβαίνει: τοῦ αὐτοῦ γὰρ λόγου, καὶ ἡ οὐσία ἓν οὕτως, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὡς λέγουσί τινες οἷον μονάς τις οὖσα ἢ στιγμή, ἀλλ᾽ ἐντελέχεια καὶ φύσις τις ἑκάστη.	Et numerum ƿ oportet esse aliquid quo unus, quod nunc non habent dicere quo unus, siquidem est unus; aut enim non est sed ut aceruus, ↵ aut siquidem est, dicendum quid quod est faciens unum ex multis. Et diffinitio una est, similiter autem neque hanc habent dicere. Et hoc merito accidit; eiusdem enim rationis, et substantia unum ita, sed non, ut dicunt quidam, ut unitas quaedam existens aut punctum, sed endelichia et natura quaedam unaque↵quae.	And (3) the number must be something in virtue of which it is one, and this these thinkers cannot state, what makes it one, if it is one (for either it is not one but a sort of heap, or if it is, we ought to say what it is that makes one out of many); and the definition is one, but similarly they cannot say what makes it one. And this is a natural result; for the same reason is applicable, and substance is one in the sense which we have explained, and not, as some say, by being a sort of unit or point; each is a complete reality and a definite nature.
καὶ ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ὁ [10] ἀριθμὸς ἔχει τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον, οὐδ᾽ ἡ κατὰ τὸ εἶδος οὐσία, ἀλλ᾽ εἴπερ, ἡ μετὰ τῆς ὕλης.	Et quemadmodum nec numerus habet magis aut minus, nec quae secundum speciem * substantia, sed siquidem, quae cum materia.	And (4) as number does not admit of the more and the less, neither does substance, in the sense of form, but if any substance does, it is only the substance which involves matter.
περὶ μὲν οὖν γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς τῶν λεγομένων οὐσιῶν, πῶς τ᾽ ἐνδέχεται καὶ πῶς ἀδύνατον, καὶ περὶ τῆς εἰς τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀναγωγῆς, ἔστω μέχρι τούτων διωρισμένον. [15]	De generatione quidem igitur et corruptione dictarum substantiarum, quomodo contingit et quomodo impossibile, et de reductione ad numerum, sit usque ad haec determinatum.	Let this, then, suffice for an account of the generation and destruction of so-called substances in what sense it is possible and in what sense impossible _ and of the reduction of things to number.