19. As has been indicated above, the genus of quality contains the
(beings) which are said to be qualified (qualitative entities),
inasmuch as they contain some quality (as, for instance, the handsome
man, so far as he is endowed with beauty).[410] These (beings) however
do not properly belong to this genus, for otherwise there would here
be two categories. It suffices to reduce them to the quality which
supplies their name.
So non-whiteness, if it indicate some color other than white, is a
quality; if it express merely a negation, or an enumeration, it is
only a word, or a term which recalls the object; if it be a word,
it constitutes a movement (so far as it is produced by the vocal
organ); if it be a name or a term, it constitutes, so far as it is a
significative, a relative. If things be classed not only by genera, if
it be admitted that each assertion and expression proclaim a genus, our
answer must be that some affirm things by their mere announcement, and
that others deny them. It may perhaps be best not to include negations
in the same genus as things themselves, since, to avoid mingling
several genera, we often do not include affirmations.
As to privations, it may be remarked that if the things of which
there are privations are qualities, then the privations themselves
are qualities, as "toothless," or "blind."[411] But "naked" and
(its contrary) "clothed" are neither of them qualities; they rather
constitute habits, and thus belong among relatives.
Passion, at the moment it is felt, does not constitute a quality, but
a movement; when it has been experienced, and has become durable, it
forms a quality;[410] further, if the (being) which has experienced
the passion have kept none of it, it will have to be described as
having been moved, which amounts to the same thing as really being
moved. However, in this case, the conception of time will have to be
abstracted from that of movement; for we must not add the conception of
the present to that of movement.[412]
Finally, (the adverb) "well," and the other analogous terms may be
reduced to the simple notion of the genus of quality.
It remains to examine if we must refer to the genus of quality "being
red" without also doing so for "reddening"[410] for "blushing" does
not belong to it, because he who blushes suffers (experiences), or is
moved. But as soon as he ceases blushing, if he have already blushed,
this is a quality; for quality does not depend on time, but consists
in being such or such; whence it follows that "having blushed" is a
quality. Therefore we shall regard as qualities only habits, and not
mere dispositions;[410] being warm, for instance, and not warming up;
being sick, but not becoming sick.