of Strabo has been often misunderstood and impugned, as if he had
asserted that none of the main works of Aristotle had ever been
published until they were thus exhumed by Apellikon. This is the
supposed allegation which Stahr, Zeller, and others have taken so
much pains to refute. But in reality Strabo says no such thing. His
words affirm or imply the direct contrary, viz., that many works of
Aristotle, not merely the exoteric works but others besides, _had_
been published earlier than the purchase made by Apellikon. What
Strabo says is, that few of these works were in possession of the
Peripatetic Scholarchs at Athens before the time of that purchase;
and he explains thus how it was that these Scholarchs, during the
century intervening, had paid little attention to the profound and
abstruse speculations of Aristotle; how it was that they had confined
themselves to dialectic and rhetorical debate on special problems. I
see no ground for calling in question the fact affirmed by
Strabo--the poverty of the Peripatetic school-library at Athens;
though he may perhaps have assigned a greater importance to that fact
than it deserves, as a means of explaining the intellectual working
of the Peripatetic Scholarchs from Lykon to Kritolaus. The
philosophical impulse of that intervening century seems to have
turned chiefly towards ethics and the _Summum Bonum_, with the
conflicting theories of Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, and
Epikureans thereupon.]
[Footnote 23: Strabo, xiii. 609. [Greek: ê)=n de\ o( A)pellikô=n
philo/biblos ma=llon ê)\ philo/sophos, dio\ kai\ zêtô=n
e)pano/othôsin tô=n diabrôma/tôn, ei)s a)nti/grapha kaina\ metê/negke
tê\n graphê\n a)naplêrô=n ou)k eu)=, kai\ e)xe/dôken a(marta/dôn
plê/rê ta\ bi/blia.]]
[Footnote 24: Strabo, xiii. 609; Plutarch, Sylla, c. xxvi.]
[Footnote 25: Strabo, xiii. 609. [Greek: Turanni/ôn, o( grammatiko\s
diecheiri/sato philaristote/lês ô)/n, therapeu/sas to\n e)pi\ tê=s
biblothê/kês.] Tyrannion had been the preceptor of Strabo (xii. 548);
and Boêthus, who studied Aristotle along with Strabo, was a disciple
of the Rhodian Andronikus. See Ammonius ad Categorias, f. 8; and
Ravaisson, Essai sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, Introduction, p.
10.]
[Footnote 26: Plutarch, Sylla, c. xxvi.]
[Footnote 27: The testimony of Porphyry in respect to Andronikus, and
to the real service performed by Andronikus, is highly valuable.
Porphyry was the devoted disciple and friend, as well as the literary
executor, of Plotinus; whose writings were left in an incorrect and
disorderly condition. Porphyry undertook to put them in order and
publish them; and he tells us that, in fulfilling this promise, he
followed the example of what Andronikus had done for the works of
Aristotle and Theophrastus. [Greek: E)pei\ de\ au)to\s] (Plotinus)
[Greek: tê\n dio/rthôsin kai\ tê\n dia/taxin tô=n bibli/ôn
poiei=sthai ê(mi=n e)pe/trepsen, e)gô\ de\ e)kei/nô| zô=nti
u(pescho/mên kai\ toi=s a)/llois e(tai/rois e)pêggeila/mên poiê=sai
tou=to, prô=ton me\n ta\ bi/blia ou) kata\ chro/nous e)a=sai phu/rdên
e)kdedome/na e)dikai/ôsa, mimêsa/menos d' A)pollo/dôron to\n
A)thênai=on kai\ A)ndro/nikon to\n Peripatêtiko/n, ô(=n o( me\n
E)pi/charmon to\n kômô|diogra/phon ei)s de/ka to/mous phe/rôn
sunê/gagen, o( de\ ta\ A)ristote/lous kai\ Theophra/stou ei)s
pragmatei/as diei=le, ta\s oi)kei/as u(pothe/seis ei)s tau)to\n
sunagagô/n, ou(/tô dê\ kai\ e)gô\ pentê/konta te/ssarau)/nta e)/chôn
ta\ tou= Plôti/nou bi/blia diei=lon me\n ei)s e(\x e)nnea/das, tê=|
teleio/têti tou= e(\x a)rithmou= kai\ tai=s e)nnea/sin a)sme/nôs
e)pituchô/n, e(ka/stê| de\ e)nnea/di ta\ oi)kei=a phe/rôn
sunepho/rêsa, dou\s kai\ ta/xin prô/tên toi=s e)laphrote/rois
problê/masin.] (Porphyry, Vita Plotini, p. 117, Didot.) Porphyry here
distinctly affirms that Andronikus rendered this valuable service not
merely to the works of Aristotle, but also to those of Theophrastus.
This is important, as connecting him with the library conveyed by
Sylla to Rome; which library we know to have contained the
manuscripts of both these philosophers. And in the Scholion appended
to the Metaphysica of Theophrastus (p. 323, Brandis) we are told that
Andronikus and Hermippus had made a catalogue of the works of
Theophrastus, in which the Metaphysics was not included.]
[Footnote 28: Strabo, xiii. 609: [Greek: bibliopô=lai/ tines
grapheu=si phau/lois chrô/menoi kai\ ou)k a)ntiba/llontes], &c.]
This interesting narrative--delivered by Strabo, the junior
contemporary of Andronikus, and probably derived by him either from
Tyrannion his preceptor or from the Sidonian Boêthus[29] and other
philosophical companions jointly, with whom he had prosecuted the
study of Aristotle--appears fully worthy of trust. The proceedings
both of Apellikon and of Sylla prove, what indeed we might have
presumed without proof, that the recovery of these long-lost original
manuscripts of Aristotle and Theophrastus excited great sensation in
the philosophical world of Athens and of Rome. With such
newly-acquired materials, a new epoch began for the study of these
authors. The more abstruse philosophical works of Aristotle now came
into the foreground under the auspices of a new Scholarch; whereas
Aristotle had hitherto been chiefly known by his more popular and
readable compositions. Of these last, probably, copies may have been
acquired to a certain extent by the previous Peripatetic Scholarchs
or School at Athens; but the School had been irreparably impoverished,
so far as regarded the deeper speculations of philosophy, by the loss
of those original manuscripts which had been transported from Athens
to Skêpsis. What Aristotelian Scholarchs, prior to Andronikus, chiefly
possessed and studied, of the productions of their illustrious
founder, were chiefly the _exoteric_ or extra-philosophical and
comparatively popular:--such as the dialogues; the legendary and
historical collections; the facts respecting constitutional history
of various Hellenic cities; the variety of miscellaneous problems
respecting Homer and a number of diverse matters; the treatises on
animals and on anatomy, &c.[30] In the Alexandrine library (as we see
by the Catalogue of Diogenes) there existed all these and several
philosophical works also; but that library was not easily available
for the use of the Scholarchs at Athens, who worked upon their own
stock, confining themselves mainly to smooth and elegant discourses
on particular questions, and especially to discussions, with the
Platonists, Stoics, and Epikureans, on the _principia_ of Ethics,
without any attempt either to follow up or to elucidate the more
profound speculations (logical, physical, metaphysical, cosmical) of
Aristotle himself. A material change took place when the library of
Apellikon came to be laid open and studied, not merely by lecturers
in the professorial chair at Athens, but also by critics like
Tyrannion and Andronikus at Rome. These critics found therein the
most profound and difficult philosophical works of Aristotle in the
handwriting of the philosopher himself; some probably, of which
copies may have already existed in the Alexandrine library, but some
also as yet unpublished. The purpose of Andronikus, who is described
as Peripatetic Scholarch, eleventh in succession from Aristotle, was
not simply to make a Catalogue (as Hermippus had made at Alexandria),
but to render a much greater service, which no critic could render
without having access to original MSS., namely, to obtain a correct
text of the books actually before him, to arrange these books in
proper order, and then to publish and explain them,[31] but to take
no account of other Aristotelian works in the Alexandrine library or
elsewhere. The Aristotelian philosophy thus passed into a new phase.
Our editions of Aristotle may be considered as taking their date from
this critical effort of Andronikus, with or without subsequent
modifications by others, as the case may be.
[Footnote 29: Strabo, xvi. 757. Stahr, in his minor work, Aristoteles
unter den Römern, p. 32, considers that this circumstance lessens the
credibility of Strabo. I think the contrary. No one was so likely to
have studied the previous history of the MSS. as the editors of a new
edition.]
[Footnote 30: Strabo, xiii. 609: [Greek: sune/bê de\ toi=s e)k tô=n
peripa/tôn toi=s me\n pa/lai toi=s meta\ Theo/phraston, o(/lôs ou)k
e)/chousi ta\ bi/blia plê\n o)li/gôn kai\ ma/lista tô=n e)xôterikô=n,
mêde\n e)/chein philosophei=n pragmatikô=s, a)lla\ the/seis
lêkuthi/zein; toi=s d' u(/steron, a)ph' ou)= ta\ bi/blia tau=ta
proê=lthen, a)/meinon me\n e)kei/nôn philosophei=n kai\
a)ristoteli/zein, a)nagka/zesthai me/ntoi ta\ polla\ ei)ko/ta le/gein
dia\ to\ plê=thos tô=n a(martiô=n.] Also Plutarch, Sylla, c. xxvi.
The passage of Strabo is so perspicuous and detailed, that it has all
the air of having been derived from the best critics who frequented
the library at Rome, where Strabo was when he wrote ([Greek: kai\
_e)/nthade_ kai\ e)n A)lexandrei/a|], xiii. 609). The Peripatetic
Andronikus, whom he names among the celebrated Rhodians (xiv. 655),
may have been among his informants. His statements about the bad
state of the manuscripts; the unskilful emendations of Apellikon; the
contrast between the vein of Peripatetic study, as it had stood
before the revelation of the manuscripts, and as it came to stand
afterwards; the uncertain evidences upon which careful students, even
with the manuscripts before them, were compelled to proceed; the tone
of depreciation in which he speaks of the carelessness of booksellers
who sought only for profit,--all these points of information appear
to me to indicate that Strabo's informants were acute and diligent
critics, familiar with the library, and anxious both for the real
understanding of these documents, and for philosophy as an end.]
[Footnote 31: Plutarch, Sylla, c. xxvi. Spengel ("Ueber die
Reihenfolge der naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften des Aristoteles,"
München. philol. Abhandl. 1848,) remarks justly that the critical
arrangement of Aristotle's writings, for collective publication,
begins from the library of Apellikon at Rome, not from that of
Alexandria. See p. 146: "Mehr als zweihundert Jahre lang fehlt uns
alle nähere Kunde über die peripatetische Schule. Erst mit der viel
besprochenen Auffindung der Bibliothek des Aristoteles in Athen und
deren Wegführung nach Rom durch Sulla wird ein regeres Studium für
die Schriften des Philosophen bemerkbar--_und zwar jetzt eigentlich
der Schriften, weniger der Lehre und Philosophie im Allgemeinen,
welche früher allein beachtet worden ist_. Wir möchten sagen, von
jetzt an beginne das philologische Studium mit den Werken des
Aristoteles, die kritische und exegetische Behandlung dieser durch
Tyrannion, Andronikus, Adrastus und viele andre nachlfolgende," &c.]
The explanation just given, coinciding on many points with Brandis
and Heitz, affords the most probable elucidation of that obscurity
which arises about the Aristotelian Canon, when we compare _our_
Aristotle with the Catalogue of Diogenes--the partial likeness, but
still greater discrepancy, between the two. It is certain that
neither Cicero[32] nor the great Alexandrine _literati_, anterior to
and contemporary with him, knew Aristotle from most of the works
which we now possess. They knew him chiefly from the dialogues, the
matters of history and legend, some zoological books, and the
problems; the dialogues, and the historical collections respecting
the constitutions of Hellenic cities,[33] being more popular and
better known than any other works. While the Republic of Plato is
familiar to them, they exhibit no knowledge of our Aristotelian
Politica, in which treatise the criticism upon the Platonic Republic
is among the most interesting parts. When we look through the
contents of our editions of Aristotle the style and manner of
handling is indeed pretty much the same throughout, but the subjects
will appear extremely diverse and multifarious; and the
encyclopedical character of the author, as to science and its
applications, will strike us forcibly. The entire and real Aristotle,
however, was not only more encyclopedical as to subjects handled, but
also more variable as to style and manner of handling; passing from
the smooth, sweet, and flowing style--which Cicero extols as
characterizing the Aristotelian dialogues--to the elliptical brevity
and obscurity which we now find so puzzling in the De Animâ and the
Metaphysica.[34]
[Footnote 32: This is certain, from the remarks addressed by Cicero
to Trebatius at the beginning of the Ciceronian Topica, that in his
time Aristotle was little known and little studied at Rome, even by
philosophical students. Trebatius knew nothing of the Topica, until
he saw the work by chance in Cicero's library, and asked information
about the contents. The reply of Cicero illustrates the little notice
taken of Aristotle by Roman readers. "Cum autem ego te, non tam
vitandi laboris mei causâ, quam quia tua id interesse arbitrarer, vel
ut eos per te ipse legeres, vel ut totam rationem a doctissimo quodam
rhetore acciperes, hortatus essem, utrumque ut ex te audiebam, es
expertus. Sed a libris te obscuritas rejecit: rhetor autem ille
magnus, ut opinor, _Aristotelia se ignorare_ respondit. Quod quidem
minime sum admiratus, eum philosophum rhetori non esse cognitum, _qui
ab ipsis philosophis, præter admodum paucos, ignoraretur._" Compare
also Cicero, Academ. Post. i. 3, 10.]
[Footnote 33: Even the philosophical commentators on Aristotle, such
as David the Armenian, seem to have known the lost work of Aristotle
called [Greek: Politei=ai] (the history of the constitutions of 250
Hellenic cities), better than the theoretical work which we possess,
called the Politica; though they doubtless knew both. (See Scholia ad
Categorias, Brandis, p. 16, b. 20; p. 24, a. 25; p. 25, b. 5.)--We
read in Schneider's Preface to the Aristotelian Politica (p. x.):
"Altum et mirabile silentium est apud antiquitatem Græcam et Romanam
de novâ Aristotelis Republicâ, cum omnes ferè scriptores Græci et
Romani, mentione Reipublicæ Platonicæ pleni, vel laudibus vel
vituperiis ejus abundant."--There is no clear reference to the
Aristotelian Politica earlier than Alexander of Aphrodisias. Both
Hildenbrand (Geschichte der Staats- und Rechts-Philosophen, t. i. pp.
358-361), and Oncken (Staatslehre des Aristot. pp. 65-66), think that
the Aristotelian Politica was not published until after the purchase
of the library by Apellikon.]
[Footnote 34: What Strabo asserts about the Peripatetic Scholarchs
succeeding Theophrastus (viz., [Greek: mêde\n e)/chein philosophei=n
pragmatikô=s, a)lla\ the/seis lêkuthi/zein]: that they could not
handle philosophy in a businesslike way--with those high generalities
and that subtle analysis which was supposed to belong to
philosophy--but gave smooth and ornate discourses on set problems or
theses) is fully borne out by what we read in Cicero about these same
Peripatetics. The Stoics (immediate successors and rivals) accused
their Peripatetic contemporaries even of being ignorant of Dialectic:
which their founder, Aristotle, in his works that we now possess, had
been the first to raise into something like a science. Cicero says
(De Finibus, iii. 12, 41): "His igitur ita positis (inquit Cato)
sequitur magna contentio: quam tractatam à Peripateticis mollius
(_est enim eorum consuetudo dicendi non satis acuta, propter
ignorationem Dialecticæ_), Carneades tuus, egregiâ quâdam
exercitatione in dialecticis summâque eloquentiâ, rem in summum
discrimen adduxit." Also Cicero, in Tuscul. Disput. iv. 5. 9: "Quia
Chrysippus et Stoici, quum de animi perturbationibus disputant,
magnam partem in iis partiendis et definiendis occupati sunt, illa
eorum perexigua oratio est, quâ medeantur animis nec eos turbulentos
esse patiantur. Peripatetici autem _ad placandos animos multa
afferunt, spinas partiendi et definiendi prætermittunt_." This last
sentence is almost an exact equivalent of the words of Strabo:
[Greek: mêde\n e)/chein philosophei=n pragmatikô=s, a)lla\ the/seis
lêkuthi/zein.] Aristotle himself, in the works which we possess,
might pass as father of the Stoics rather than of the Peripatetics;
for he abounds in classification and subdivision (spinas partiendi et
dividendi), and is even derided on this very ground by opponents (see
Atticus ap. Euseb. Præp. Ev. xv. 4); but he has nothing of the
polished amplification ascribed to the later Peripatetics by Strabo
and Cicero. Compare, about the Peripatetics from Lykon to Kritolaus,
Cicero, De Finibus, v. 5: "Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis
jejunior." Plutarch (Sylla, c. xxvi.) calls these later Peripatetics
[Greek: charie/ntes kai\ philo/logoi], &c.]
I shall assume this variety, both of subject and of handling, as a
feature to be admitted and allowed for in Aristotle, when I come to
discuss the objections of some critics against the authenticity of
certain treatises among the forty-six which now pass under his name.
But in canvassing the Aristotelian Canon I am unable to take the same
ground as I took in my former work, when reviewing the Platonic
Canon. In regard to Plato, I pointed out a strong antecedent
presumption in favour of the Canon of Thrasyllus--a canon derived
originally from the Alexandrine librarians, and sustained by the
unanimous adhesion of antiquity. In regard to Aristotle, there are no
similar grounds of presumption to stand upon. We have good reason for
believing that the works both of Plato and Aristotle--if not all the
works, at least many of them, and those the most generally
interesting--were copied and transmitted early to the Alexandrine
library. Now _our_ Plato represents that which was possessed and
accredited as Platonic by the Byzantine Aristophanes and the other
Alexandrine librarians; but _our_ Aristotle does not, in my judgment,
represent what these librarians possessed and accredited as
Aristotelian. That which they thus accredited stands recorded in the
Catalogue given by Diogenes, probably the work of Hermippus, as I
have already stated; while _our_ Aristotle is traceable to the
collection at Athens, including that of Apellikon, with that which he
bought from the heirs of Neleus, and to the sifting, correction, and
classification, applied thereto by able critics of the first century
B.C. and subsequently; among whom Andronikus is best known. We may
easily believe that the library of Apellikon contained various
compositions of Aristotle, which had never been copied for the
Alexandrine library--perhaps never prepared for publication at all,
so that the task of arranging detached sections or morsels into a
whole, with one separate title, still remained to be performed. This
was most likely to be the case with abstruser speculations, like the
component books of the Metaphysica, which Theophrastus may not have
been forward to tender, and which the library might not be very eager
to acquire, having already near four hundred other volumes by the
same author. These reserved works would therefore remain in the
library of Theophrastus, not copied and circulated (or at least
circulated only to a few private philosophical brethren, such as
Eudêmus), so that they never became fully published until the days of
Apellikon.[35]
[Footnote 35: The two Peripatetic Scholarchs at Athens, Straton and
Lykon, who succeeded (after the death of Theophrastus and the
transfer of his library to Skêpsis) in the conduct of the school,
left at their decease collections of books, of which each disposes by
his will (Diogen. L. v. 62; v. 73). The library of Apellikon, when
sent by Sylla to Rome, contained probably many other Aristotelian
MSS., besides those purchased from Skêpsis.
Michelet, in his Commentary on the Nikomachean Ethica, advances a
theory somewhat analogous but bolder, respecting the relation between
the Catalogue given by Diogenes, and the works contained in _our_
Aristotle. Comm. p. 2. "Id solum addam, hoc Aristotelis opus (the
Nikomachean Ethica), ut reliqua omnia, ex brevioribus
commentationibus consarcinatum fuisse, quæ quidem vivo Aristotele in
lucem prodierint, cum unaquæque disciplina, e quâ excerpta fuerint in
admirabilem illum quem habemus ordinem jam ab ipso Aristotele sive
quodam ejus discipulo redacta, in libris Aristotelis manu scriptis
latitaverit, qui hereditate ad Nelei prolem, ut notum est,
transmissi, in cellâ illâ subterraneâ Scepsiâ absconditi fuerunt,
donec Apellicon Teius et Rhodius Andronicus eos ediderint. Leguntur
autem commentationum illarum de Moribus tituli in elencho librorum
Aristotelis apud Diogenem (v. 22-26): [Greek: peri\ a)retô=n] (Lib.
ii., iii. c. 6-fin. iv. nostrorum Ethicorum); [Greek: peri\
e(kousi/ou] (Lib. iii. c. 1-5); &c. Plerumque enim non integra
volumina, sed singulos libros vel singula volumina diversarum
disciplinarum, Diogenes in elencho suo enumeravit."
In his other work (Essai sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, pp. 202,
205, 225) Michelet has carried this theory still farther, and has
endeavoured to identify separate fragments of the Aristotelian works
now extant, with various titles in the Catalogue given by Diogenes.
The identification is not convincing.]
But though the edition published by Andronikus would thus contain
many genuine works of Aristotle not previously known or edited, we
cannot be sure that it would not also include some which were
spurious. Reflect what the library of Apellikon, transported to Rome
by Sylla, really was. There was in it the entire library of
Theophrastus; probably, also, that of Neleus, who must have had some
books of his own, besides what he inherited from Theophrastus. It
included all the numerous manuscript works composed by Aristotle and
Theophrastus, and many other manuscript works purchased or acquired
by them, but composed by others--the whole in very bad order and
condition; and, moreover, the books which Apellikon possessed before,
doubtless as many Aristotelian books as he could purchase. To
distinguish, among this heterogeneous mass of manuscripts, which of
them were the manuscripts composed by Aristotle; to separate these
from the writings of Theophrastus, Eudêmus, or other authors, who
composed various works of their own upon the same subjects and with
the same titles as those of Aristotle--required extreme critical
discernment and caution; the rather, since there was no living
companion of Aristotle or Theophrastus to guide or advise, more than
a century and a half having elapsed since the death of Theophrastus,
and two centuries since that of Aristotle. Such were the difficulties
amidst which Apellikon, Tyrannion, and Andronikus had to decide, when
they singled out the manuscripts of Aristotle to be published. I will
not say that they decided wrongly; yet neither can I contend (as I
argued in the case of the Platonic dialogues) that the presumption is
very powerful in favour of that Canon which their decision made
legal. The case is much more open to argument, if any grounds against
the decision can be urged.
Andronikus put in, arranged, and published the treatises of Aristotle
(or those which he regarded as composed by Aristotle) included in the
library conveyed by Sylla to Rome. I have already observed, that
among these treatises there were some, of which copies existed in the
Alexandrine library (as represented by the Catalogue of Diogenes),
but a still greater number which cannot be identified with the titles
remaining of works there preserved. As to the works common to both
libraries, we must remember that Andronikus introduced a
classification of his own, analogous to the Enneads applied by
Porphyry to the works of Plotinus, and to the Tetralogies adopted by
Thrasyllus in regard to the Dialogues of Plato; so that even these
works might not be distributed in the same partitions under each of
the two arrangements. And this is what we actually see when we
compare the Catalogue of Diogenes with _our_ Aristotle. Rhetoric,
Ethics, Physics, Problems, &c., appear in both as titles or subjects,
but distributed into a different number of books or sections in one
and in the other; perhaps, indeed, the compositions are not always
the same.
Before I proceed to deal with the preserved works of Aristotle--those
by which alone he is known to us, and was known to mediæval readers,
I shall say a few words respecting the import of a distinction which
has been much canvassed, conveyed in the word _exoteric_ and its
opposite. This term, used on various occasions by Aristotle himself,
has been also employed by many ancient critics, from Cicero
downwards; while by mediæval and modern critics, it has not merely
been employed, but also analysed and elucidated. According to Cicero
(the earliest writer subsequent to Aristotle in whom we find the
term), it designates one among two classes of works composed by
Aristotle: _exoteric_ works were those composed in a popular style
and intended for a large, indiscriminate circle of readers: being
contrasted with other works of elaborated philosophical reasoning,
which were not prepared for the public taste, but left in the
condition of memorials for the instruction of a more select class of
studious men. Two points are to be observed respecting Cicero's
declaration. First, he applies it to the writings not of Aristotle
exclusively, but also to those of Theophrastus, and even of
succeeding Peripatetics; secondly, he applies it directly to such of
their writings only as related to the discussion of the _Summum
Bonum_.[36] Furthermore, Cicero describes the works which Aristotle
called exoteric, as having _proems_ or introductory prefaces.[37]
[Footnote 36: Cicero, De Finibus, v. 5, 12. "De summo autem bono,
quia duo genera librorum sunt, unum populariter scriptum, quod
[Greek: e)xôteriko\n] appellabant, alterum limatius, quod in
commentariis reliquerunt, non semper idem dicere videntur: nec in
summâ tamen ipsâ aut varietas est ulla, apud hos quidem quos
nominavi, aut inter ipsos dissensio."
The word _limatius_ here cannot allude to high polish and ornament of
style (nitor orationis), but must be equivalent to [Greek:
a)kribe/steron], _doctius_, _subtilius_, &c. (as Buhle and others
have already remarked, Buhle, De Libris Aristot. Exoter. et Acroam.
p. 115; Madvig, ad Cicero de Finib. v. 12; Heitz, p. 134), applied to
profound reasoning, with distinctions of unusual precision, which it
required a careful preparatory training to apprehend. This employment
of the word _limatius_ appears to me singular, but it cannot mean
anything else here. The _commentarii_ are the general heads--plain
unadorned statements of facts or reasoning--which the orator or
historian is to employ his genius in setting forth and decorating, so
that it may be heard or read with pleasure and admiration by a
general audience. Cicero, in that remarkable letter wherein he
entreats Lucceius to narrate his (Cicero's) consulship in an
historical work, undertakes to compose "commentarios rerum omnium" as
materials for the use of Lucceius (Ep. ad Famil. v. 12. 10). His
expression, "in commentariis reliquerunt," shows that he considered
the exoteric books to have been prepared by working up some naked
preliminary materials into an ornate and interesting form.]
[Footnote 37: Cicero, Ep. ad Att. iv. 16.]
In the main, the distinction here drawn by Cicero, understood in a
very general sense, has been accepted by most following critics as
intended by the term _exoteric_: something addressed to a wide,
indiscriminate circle of general readers or hearers, and intelligible
or interesting to them without any special study or training--as
contrasted with that which is reserved for a smaller circle of
students assumed to be specially qualified. But among those who agree
in this general admission, many differences have prevailed. Some have
thought that the term was not used by Aristotle to designate any
writings either of his own or of others, but only in allusion to
informal oral dialogues or debates. Others again, feeling assured
that Aristotle intended by the term to signify some writings of his
own, have searched among the works preserved, as well as among the
titles of the works lost, to discriminate such as the author
considered to be exoteric: though this search has certainly not ended
in unanimity; nor do I think it has been successful. Again, there
have not been wanting critics (among them, Thomas Aquinas and
Sepulveda), who assign to the term a meaning still more vague and
undefined; contending that when Aristotle alludes to "exoteric
discourses," he indicates simply some other treatise of his own,
distinct from that in which the allusion occurs, without meaning to
imply anything respecting its character.[38]
[Footnote 38: Sepulveda, p. 125 (cited by Bernays, Dialoge des
Aristoteles, p. 41): "Externos sermones sive exotericos solet
Aristoteles libros eos appellare, quicunque sunt extra id opus in quo
tunc versatur, ut jure pontificio periti consueverunt: non enim
exoterici sermones seu libri certo aliquo genere continentur, ut est
publicus error."
Zeller lends his high authority to an explanation of _exoteric_ very
similar to the above. (Gesch. der Philos. ii. 2, p. 100, seq.:--"dass
unter exoterischen Reden nicht eine eigene Klasse populär
geschriebener Bücher, sondern nur überhaupt solche Erörterungen
verstanden werden, welche nicht in den Bereich der vorliegenden
Untersuchung gehören.") He discusses the point at some length; but
the very passages which he cites, especially Physica, iv. 10, appear
to me less favourable to his view than to that which I have stated in
the text, according to which the word means _dialectic_ as contrasted
with _didactic_.]
To me it appears that this last explanation is untenable, and that
the term _exoteric_ designates matter of a certain character,
assignable to some extent by positive marks, but still more by
negative; matter, in part, analogous to that defined by Cicero and
other critics. But to conceive clearly or fully what its character
is, we must turn to Aristotle himself, who is of course the final
authority, wherever he can be found to speak in a decisive manner.
His preserved works afford altogether eight passages (two of them
indeed in the Eudemian Ethics, which, for the present at least, I
shall assume to be his work), wherein the phrase "exoteric
discourses" ([Greek: e)xôterikoi\ lo/goi]) occurs. Out of these eight
passages, there are seven which present the phrase as designating
some unknown matter, not farther specified, but distinct from the
work in which the phrase occurs: "Enough has been said (or is said,
Aristotle intimates) about this subject, even in the exoteric
discourses." To what it is that he here alludes--whether to other
writings of his own or oral discussions of his own, or writing and
speech of a particular sort by others--we are left to interpret as we
best may, by probable reason or conjecture. But there is one among
the eight passages, in which Aristotle uses the term _exoteric_ as
describing, not what is to be looked for elsewhere, but what he is
himself about to give in the treatise in hand. In the fourth book of
the Physica, he discusses the three high abstractions, Place, Vacuum,
Time. After making an end of the first two, he enters upon the third,
beginning with the following words:--"It follows naturally on what
has been said, that we should treat respecting Time. But first it is
convenient to advert to the difficulties involved in it, by _exoteric
discourse also_--whether Time be included among entities or among
non-entities; then afterwards, what is its nature. Now a man might
suspect, from the following reasons, that Time either absolutely does
not exist, or exists scarcely and dimly," &c. Aristotle then gives a
string of dialectic reasons, lasting through one of the columns of
the Berlin edition, for doubting whether Time really exists. He
afterwards proceeds thus, through two farther columns:--"Let these be
enumerated as the difficulties accompanying the attributes of Time.
What Time is, and what is its nature, is obscure, as well from what
has been handed down to us by others, as from what we ourselves have
just gone through;"[39] and this question also he first discusses
dialectically, and then brings to a solution.
[Footnote 39: Aristot. Physic. iv. 10, p. 217, b. 29. [Greek:
E)cho/menon de\ tô=n ei)rême/nôn e)sti\n e)pelthei=n peri\ chro/nou;
prô=ton de\ kalô=s e)/chei diaporê=sai peri\ au)tou= _kai\ dia\ tô=n
e)xôterikô=n lo/gôn_, po/teron tô=n o)/ntôn e)sti\n ê)\ tô=n mê\
o)/ntôn, ei)=ta ti/s ê( phu/sis au)tou=. O(/ti me\n ou)=n ê)\ o(/lôs
e)/stin, ê)\ mo/lis kai\ a)mudrô=s, e)k tô=nde/ tis a)\n
u(popteu/seien.] Then, after a column of text urging various [Greek:
a)pori/as] as to whether Time is or is not, he goes on, p. 218, a.
31:--[Greek: Peri\ me\n ou)=n tô=n u(parcho/ntôn au)tô=| tosau=t'
e)/stô diêporême/na. Ti/ d' e)sti\n o( chro/nos, kai\ ti/s au)tou= ê(
phu/sis, o(moi/ôs e)/k te tô=n paradedome/nôn a)/dêlo/n e)sti, kai\
peri\ ô(=n tugcha/nomen dielêlutho/tes pro/teron]--thus taking up the
questions, What Time is? What is the nature of Time? Upon this he
goes through another column of [Greek: a)pori/ai], difficulties and
counter-difficulties, until p. 219, a. 1, when he approaches to a
positive determination, as the sequel of various negatives--[Greek:
o(/ti me\n ou)=n ou)/te ki/nêsis ou)/t' a)/neu kinê/seôs o( chro/nos
e)sti/, phanero/n. _lêpte/on_ de/, e)pei\ zêtou=men ti/ e)stin o(
chro/nos, _e)nteu=then a)rchome/nois_, ti/ tê=s kinê/seô/s e)stin.]
He pursues this positive determination throughout two farther columns
(see [Greek: u(pokei/sthô], a. 30), until at length he arrives at his
final definition of Time--[Greek: a)rithmo\s kinê/seôs kata\ to\
pro/teron kai\ u(/steron, kai\ sunechê/s (sunechou=s ga\r)]--which he
declares to be [Greek: phanero/n], p. 220, a. 25.
It is plain that the phrase [Greek: e)xôterikoi\ lo/goi] here
designates the preliminary dialectic tentative process, before the
final affirmative is directly attempted, as we read in De Gener. et
Corr. i. 3, p. 317, b. 13: [Greek: peri\ me\n ou)=n tou/tôn e)n
a)/llois _te diêpo/rêtai kai\ diô/ristai_ toi=s lo/gois e)pi\
plei=on]--first, [Greek: to\ _diaporei=n_], next, [Greek: to\
_diori/zein_].]
Now what is it that Aristotle here means by "exoteric discourse?" We
may discover by reading the matter comprised between the two
foregoing citations. We find a string of perplexing difficulties
connected with the supposition that Time exists: such as, "That all
Time is either past or future, of which the former no longer exists,
and the latter does not yet exist; that the Now is no part of Time,
for every Whole is composed of its Parts, and Time is not composed of
Nows," &c. I do not go farther here into these subtle suggestions,
because my present purpose is only to illustrate what Aristotle calls
"exoteric discourse," by exhibiting what he himself announces to be a
specimen thereof. It is the process of noticing and tracing out all
the doubts and difficulties ([Greek: a)pori/as]) which beset the
enquiry in hand, along with the different opinions entertained about
it either by the vulgar, or by individual philosophers, and the
various reasons whereby such opinions may be sustained or impugned.
It is in fact the same process as that which, when performed (as it
was habitually and actively in his age) between two disputants, he
calls _dialectic debate_; and which he seeks to encourage as well as
to regulate in his treatise entitled Topica. He contrasts it with
philosophy, or with the strictly didactic and demonstrative
procedure: wherein the teacher lays down principles which he requires
the learner to admit, and then deduces from them, by syllogisms
constructed in regular form, consequences indisputably binding on all
who have admitted the principles. But though Aristotle thus
distinguishes Dialectic from Philosophy, he at the same time declares
it to be valuable as an auxiliary towards the purpose of philosophy,
and as an introductory exercise before the didactic stage begins. The
philosopher ought to show his competence as a dialectician, by
indicating and handling those various difficulties and controversies
bearing on his subject, which have already been made known, either in
writings or in oral debate.[40]
[Footnote 40: See Aristot. Topic. i. p. 100, b. 21, p. 101, a. 25,
34-36, b. 2. [Greek: Pro\s de\ ta\s kata\ philosophi/an e)pistê/mas
(chrê/simos ê( pragmatei/a), o(/ti duna/menoi pro\s a)mpho/tera
diaporê=sai r(a=|on e)n e(ka/stois katopso/metha ta)lêthe/s te kai\
to\ pseu=dos], p. 105, b. 30. [Greek: Pro\s me\n ou)=n philosophi/an
kat' a)lêtheian peri\ **au)tô=n pragmateue/on, _**dialektikô=s de\
pro\s do/xan_.]
Compare also the commencement of book B. in the Metaphysica, p. 995,
a. 28 seq., and, indeed, the whole of book B., which contains a
dialectic discussion of numerous [Greek: a)pori/ai]. Aristotle
himself refers to it afterwards ([Greek: G]. p. 1004, a. 32) in the
words [Greek: u(/per e)n tai=s a)pori/ais e)lechthê].
The Scholia of Alexander on the beginning of the Topica (pp. 251,
252, Brandis) are instructive; also his Scholia on p. 105, b. 30, p.
260, a. 24. [Greek: _dialektikô=s de\ pro\s do/xan_, ô(s e)n tau/tê|
tê=| pragmatei/a|] (_i.e._ the Topica) [Greek: kai\ e)n toi=s
r(êtorikoi=s, kai\ _e)n toi=s e)xôterikoi=s_. kai\ ga\r e)n
e)kei/nois plei=sta kai\ peri\ tô=n** ê)thikô=n kai\ peri\ tô=n
phusikô=n _e)ndo/xôs_ le/getai.]
We see here that Alexander understands by the _exoteric_ the
dialectic handling of opinions on physics and ethics.
In the Eudemian Ethica also (i. 8, p. 1217, b. 16) we find [Greek:
e)pe/skeptai de\ polloi=s peri\ au)tou= tro/pois, kai\ e)n toi=s
e)xôterikoi=s lo/gois kai\ e)n toi=s kata\ philosophi/an], where we
have the same antithesis in other words--Exoteric or Dialectic
_versus_ Philosophical or Didactic. Compare a clear statement in
Simplikius (Schol. ad Physic. p. 364, b. 19). [Greek: Prô=ton me\n
logikô=s e)picheirei=, tou/testi pithanô=s kai\ e)ndo/xôs, kai\ e)/ti
koino/tero/n pôs kai\ dialektikô/teron. Ê( ga\r dialektikê\ ê(
A)ristote/lous koinê/ e)sti me/thodos peri\ panto\s tou=
protethe/ntos e)x e)ndo/xôn sullogizome/nê--to\ ga\r logiko\n ô(s
koino\n ei)/ôthen a)ntidiaste/llein ta| oi)kei/ô| kai\ kata\ phu/sin
tou= pra/gmatos kai\ a)podeiktikô=|.]]
We thus learn, from the example furnished by Aristotle himself, what
he means by "exoteric discourses." The epithet means literally,
_extraneous to_, _lying on the outside of_; in the present case, on
the outside of philosophy, considered in its special didactic and
demonstrative march.[41] Yet what thus lies outside philosophy, is
nevertheless useful as an accompaniment and preparation for
philosophy. We shall find Aristotle insisting upon this in his Topica
and Analytica; and we shall also find him introducing the exoteric
treatment into his most abstruse philosophical treatises (the Physica
is one of the most abstruse) as an accompaniment and auxiliary--a
dialectic survey of opinions, puzzles, and controverted points,
before he begins to lay down and follow out affirmative principles of
his own. He does this not only throughout the Physica (in several
other passages besides that which I have just cited),[42] but also in
the Metaphysica, the treatises De Animâ, De Generatione et
Corruptione, &c.
[Footnote 41: We find the epithet [Greek: e)xôteriko\s] used once by
Aristotle, not in conjunction with [Greek: lo/goi], but with [Greek:
pra/xeis], designating those acts which are performed with a view to
some ulterior and extraneous end ([Greek: tô=n a)pobaino/ntôn
cha/rin], as contrasted with [Greek: pra/xeis
au)totelei=s--oi)kei=ai]): Polit. vii. p. 1325, b. 22-29.
[Greek: scholê=| **ga\r a)\n o( theo\s e)/choi kalô=s kai\ pa=s o(
ko/smos, oi(=s ou)k ei)si\n e)xôterikai\ pra/xeis para\ ta\s
oi)kei/as ta\s au)tô=n.] In the Eudemian Ethics the phrase [Greek:
_toi=s a)llotri/ois lo/gois_ sophi/zontai] is used much in the same
sense as [Greek: _toi=s e)xôterikoi=s_ lo/gois]: _i.e._ opposed to
[Greek: toi=s oi)kei/ois]--to that which belongs specially to the
scientific determination of the problem (Ethic. Eudem. i. p. 1218,
b. 18).
The phrase [Greek: dia\ tô=n e)xôterikô=n lo/gôn], in Aristot.
Physic. iv. 10, p. 217, b. 31, and the different phrase [Greek: e)k
tô=n ei)ôtho/tôn lo/gôn le/gesthai], in Phys. vi. 2, p. 233, a. 13,
appear to have the same meaning and reference. Compare Prantl not. ad
Arist. Phys. p. 501.]
[Footnote 42: If we turn to the beginning of book iv. of the Physica,
where Aristotle undertakes to examine [Greek: To/pos], _Place_, we
shall see that he begins by a dialectic handling of [Greek:
a)pori/ai], exactly analogous to that which he himself calls [Greek:
e)xôterikoi\ lo/goi], when he proceeds to examine [Greek: Chro/nos],
_Time_: see Physica, iv. pp. 208, a. 32-35, 209, a. 30; 210, a. 12,
b. 31. He does the like also about [Greek: Keno/n], _Vacuum_, p. 213,
a. 20, b. 28, and about [Greek: A)/peiron], _Infinitum_, iii. p. 204,
b. 4 (with the Scholia of Simplikius, p. 364, b. 20, Br.).
Compare the Scholion of Simplikius ad Physica (i. p. 329, b. 1,
Br.)--[Greek: _i)/sôs_ de\] (Simplikius uses this indecisive word
[Greek: i)/sôs]) [Greek: o(/ti ê( e)ph' e(ka/tera a)pori/a tou=
lo/gou e)xôterikê/ tis ê)=n, ô(s Eu)/dêmo/s phêsi, dialektikê\ ma=llon
ou)=sa], with this last Scholion, on p. 364, b. 20, which describes
the same dialectic handling, though without directly calling it
_exoteric_.]
Having thus learnt to understand, from one distinct passage of
Aristotle himself, what he means by "exoteric discourses," we must
interpret by the light of this analogy the other indistinct passages
in which the phrase occurs. We see clearly that in using the phrase,
he does not of necessity intend to refer to any other writings of his
own--nor even to any other writings at all. He may possibly mean
this; but we cannot be sure of it. He means by the phrase, a
dialectic process of turning over and criticizing diverse opinions
and probabilities: whether in his own writings, or in those of
others, or in no writings at all, but simply in those oral debates
which his treatise called Topica presupposes--this is a point which
the phrase itself does not determine. He _may_ mean to allude, in
some cases where he uses the phrase, to his own lost dialogues; but
he may also allude to Platonic and other dialogues, or to colloquies
carried on orally by himself with his pupils, or to oral debates on
intellectual topics between other active-minded men. When Bernays
refers "exoteric discourse" to the lost Aristotelian Dialogues; when
Madvig, Zeller, Torstrick, Forchhammer, and others, refer it to the
contemporary oral dialectic[43]--I think that neither of these
explanations is in itself inadmissible. The context of each
particular passage must decide which of the two is the more probable.
We cannot go farther, in explaining the seven doubtful passages where
Aristotle alludes to the "exoteric discourses," than to understand
the general character and scope of the reasonings which he thus
designates. Extra-philosophical, double-sided, dialectic, is in
general (he holds) insufficient by itself, and valuable only as a
preparation and auxiliary to the didactic process. But there are some
particular points on which such dialectic leaves a result sufficient
and satisfactory, which can be safely accepted as the basis of future
deduction. These points he indicates in the passages above cited;
without informing us more particularly whether the dialectic was
written or spoken, and whether by himself or by others.[44]
[Footnote 43: Ueberweg (Geschichte der Philos. des Alterthums, vol.
i. § 46, p. 127, 2nd ed.) gives a just and accurate view of [Greek:
e)xôterikoi\ lo/goi], as conceived by Aristotle. See also the
dissertation of Buhle, prefixed to his unfinished edition of
Aristotle, De Aristotelis Libris Exotericis et Acroamaticis, pp.
107-152--which discusses this subject copiously, and gives a
collection both of the passages and comments which bear upon it.
It is instructive, though his opinion leans too much towards the
supposition of a double doctrine. Bernays, in his dissertation, Die
Dialoge des Aristoteles, maintains that by _exoteric books_ are
always meant the lost dialogues of Aristotle; and he employs much
reasoning to refute the supposition of Madvig (Excurs. VII. ad
Cicero, de Fin. p. 861), of Torstrick (ad Aristotel. de Animâ, p.
123), and also of Zeller, that by exoteric discourses are not meant
any writings at all, but simply the colloquies and debates of
cultivated men, apart from the philosophical schools. On the other
hand, Forchhammer has espoused this last-mentioned opinion, and has
defended it against the objections of Bernays (Forchhammer,
Aristoteles und die exoterischen Reden, p. 16, seq.). The question is
thus fully argued on both sides. To me it seems that each of these
two opinions is partially right, and neither of them exclusively
right. "Exoteric discourse," as I understand it, might be found both
in the Aristotelian dialogues, and in the debates of cultivated men
out of the schools, and also in parts of the Aristotelian akroamatic
works. The argument of Bernays (p. 36, seq.), that the points which
Aristotle alludes to as having been debated and settled in exoteric
discourses, were too abstruse and subtle to have been much handled by
cultivated men out of the schools, or (as he expresses it) in the
_salons_ or coffee-houses (or what corresponded thereto) at
Athens--this argument seems to me untenable. We know well, from the
Topica of Aristotle, that the most abstruse subjects were handled
dialectically, in a manner which he called extra-philosophical; and
that this was a frequent occupation of active-minded men at Athens.
To discuss these matters in the way which he calls [Greek: pro\s
do/xan], was more frequent than to discuss them [Greek: pro\s
a)lê/theian].
Zell remarks (ad Ethica Nikom. i. 13), after referring to the passage
in Aristotle's Physica, iv. 10 (to which I have called attention in a
previous note), "quo loco, à Buhlio neglecto, [Greek: e)xôterikoi\
lo/goi] idem significant quod alibi [Greek: koinai\ do/xai,
ei)ôtho/tes lo/goi], vel [Greek: ta\ lego/mena]: quæ semper,
priusquam suas rationes in disputando proponat, disquirere solet
Aristoteles. Vide supra, ad cap. viii. 1." I find also in Weisse
(Translation of and Comment on the Physica of Aristotle, p. 517) a
fair explanation of what Aristotle really means by _exoteric_; an
explanation, however, which Ritter sets aside, in my judgment
erroneously (Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. iii. p. 23).]
[Footnote 44: Thus, for example, the passage in the Ethica Nikom. i.
13, p. 1102, a. 26. [Greek: le/getai de\ peri\ au)tô=n kai\ e)n toi=s
e)xôterikoi=s lo/gois a)rkou/ntôs e)/nia, kai\ chrêste/on au)toi=s],
is explained in the Paraphrase of the Pseudo-Andronikus as referring
to oral colloquy of Aristotle himself with pupils or interlocutors;
and this _may_ possibly be a correct explanation.]
From the time of Cicero downward, a distinction has been drawn
between some books of Aristotle which were exoteric, and others that
were not so; these last being occasionally designated as
_akroamatic_. Some modern critics have farther tried to point out
which, among the preserved works of Aristotle, belonged to each of
these heads. Now there existed, doubtless, in the days of Cicero,
Strabo, Plutarch, and Gellius, books of Aristotle properly called
_exoteric_, _i.e._ consisting almost entirely of exoteric discourse
and debate; though whether Aristotle himself would have spoken of an
exoteric _book_, I have some doubt. Of such a character were his
Dialogues. But all the works designated as akroamatic (or
non-exoteric) must probably have contained a certain admixture of
"exoteric discourse"; as the Physica ([Greek: Phusikê\ A)kro/asis])
and the Metaphysica are seen to contain now. The distinction
indicated by Cicero would thus be really between one class of works,
wherein "exoteric discourse" was exclusive or paramount,--and
another, in which it was partially introduced, subordinate to some
specified didactic purpose.[45] To this last class belong all the
works of Aristotle that we possess at present. Cicero would have
found none of them corresponding to his notion of an exoteric book.
[Footnote 45: To this extent I go along with the opinion expressed by
Weisse in his translation of the Physica of Aristotle, p. 517: "Dass
dieser Gegensatz kein absoluter von zwei durchaus getrennten
Bücherclassen ist, sondern dass ein und dasselbe Werk zugleich
_exoterisch_ und _esoterisch_ sein konnte; und zweitens, dass
_exoterisch_ überhaupt dasjenige heisst, was nicht in den
positiv-dogmatischen Zusammenhang der Lehre des Philosophen
unmittelbar als Glied eintritt." But Weisse goes on afterwards to
give a different opinion (about the meaning of _exoteric_ books),
conformable to what I have cited in a previous note from Sepulveda;
and in that I do not concur. However, he remarks that the manner in
which Aristotle handled the Abstracta, _Place_ and _Infinite_, is
just the same as that which he declares to be _exoteric_ in the case
of _Time_. The distinction drawn by Aulus Gellius (xx. 5) is not
accurate: "[Greek: E)xôterika\] dicebantur, quæ ad rhetoricas
meditationes, facultatem argutiarum, civiliumque rerum notitiam
conducebant. [Greek: A)kroatika\] autem vocabantur, in quibus
philosophia remotior subtiliorque agitabatur; quæque ad naturæ
contemplationes, disceptationesque dialecticas pertinebant." It
appears to me that _disceptationes dialecticæ_ ought to be
transferred to the department [Greek: e)xôterika/], and that
_civilium rerum notitia_ belongs as much to [Greek: a)kroatika\] as
to [Greek: e)xôterika/]. M. Ravaisson has discussed this question
very ably and instructively, Essai sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote,
pp. 224-244. He professes indeed to defend the opinion which I have
cited from Sepulveda, and which I think erroneous; but his reasonings
go really to the support of the opinion given in my text. He remarks,
justly, that the dialogues of Plato (at least all the dialogues of
Search) are specimens of exoteric handling; of which attribute
Forchhammer speaks as if it were peculiar to the Charmides (Aristot.
Exot. Reden. p. 22). Brandis (Aristoteles, p. 105) thinks that when
Aristotle says in the Politica, vii. 1, p. 1323, a. 21: [Greek:
nomi/santas ou)=n i(kanô=s polla\ le/gesthai kai\ tô=n e)n toi=s
e)xôterikoi=s lo/gois peri\ tê=s a)ri/stês zô/ês, kai\ nu=n
chrêste/on au)toi=s], he intends to designate the Ethica. It may be
so; yet the Politica seems a continuation of the Ethica: moreover,
even in the Ethica, we find reference made to previous discussions,
[Greek: e)n toi=s e)xôterikô=s lo/gois] (Eth. N. I. 13).]
To understand fully the extent comprehended by the word _exoteric_,
we must recollect that its direct and immediate meaning is negative--
_extraneous to philosophy_, and suitable to an audience not specially
taught or prepared for philosophy. Now this negative characteristic
belongs not merely to dialectic (as we see it in the example above
cited from the Aristotelian Physica), but also to rhetoric or
rhetorical argument. We know that, in Aristotle's mind, the
rhetorical handling and the dialectical handling, are placed both of
them under the same head, as dealing with opinions rather than with
truth.[46] Both the one and the other are parted off from the
didactic or demonstrative march which leads to philosophical truth;
though dialectic has a distant affinity with that march, and is
indeed available as an auxiliary skirmisher. The term _exoteric_ will
thus comprehend both rhetorical argument and dialectical
argument.[47] Of the latter, we have just seen a specimen extracted
from the Physica; of the former, I know no specimen remaining, but
there probably were many of them in the Aristotelian dialogues now
lost--that which was called 'Eudemus,' and others. With these
dialogues Cicero was probably more familiar than with any other
composition of Aristotle. I think it highly probable that Aristotle
alludes to the dialogues in some of the passages where he refers to
"exoteric discourses." To that extent I agree with Bernays; but I see
no reason to believe (as he does) that the case is the same with all
the passages, or that the epithet is to be understood _always_ as
implying one of these lost Aristotelian dialogues.[48]
[Footnote 46: See the first two chapters of Aristotle's Rhetorica,
especially pp. 1355 a. 24-35, 1358 a. 5, 11, 25, also p. 1404 a. 1.:
[Greek: o(/lôs ou)/sês _pro\s do/xan_ tê=s pragmatei/as tê=s peri\
tê\n r(êtorikê/n], which is exactly what he says also about
Dialectic, in the commencement of the Topica.]
[Footnote 47: Octavianus Ferrarius observes, in his treatise De
Sermonibus Exotericis (Venet. 1575), p. 24: "Quod si Dialecticus et
Rhetor inter se mutant, ut aiunt, ita ut Dialecticus Rhetorem et
Rhetor Dialecticum vicissim induat--de his ipsis veteribus
Dialecticis minime nobis dubitandum est, quin iidem dialectice simul
et rhetorice loqui in utramque partem potuerint. Nec valde mirum
debet hoc videri; libros enim exotericos prope solos habuerunt: qui
cum scripti essent (ut posterius planum faciam) dialectico more,
illorum lectio cum libris peperit philosophos congruentes"--Ferrari
adverts well to the distinction between the philosopher and the
dialectician (_sensu Aristotelico_), handling often the same
subjects, but in a different way: between the [Greek: oi)kei=ai
a)rchai/], upon which didactic method rested, and the [Greek: do/xai]
or diverse opinions, each countenanced by more or less authority,
from which dialectic took its departure (pp. 36, 86, 89).]
[Footnote 48: I agree very much with the manner in which Bernays puts
his case, pp. 79, 80, 92, 93: though there is a contradiction between
p. 80 and p. 92, in respect to the taste and aptitude of the exterior
public for dialectic debate; which is affirmed in the former page,
denied in the latter. But the doctrine asserted in the pages just
indicated amounts only to this--that the dialogues were _included in_
Aristotle's phrase, [Greek: e)xôterikoi\ lo/goi]; which appears to me
true.]
There grew up, in the minds of some commentators, a supposition of
"exoteric doctrine" as denoting what Aristotle promulgated to the
public, contrasted with another secret or mystic doctrine reserved
for a special few, and denoted by the term _esoteric_; though this
term is not found in use before the days of Lucian.[49] I believe the
supposition of a double doctrine to be mistaken in regard to
Aristotle; but it is true as to the Pythagoreans, and is not without
some colour of truth even as to Plato. That Aristotle employed one
manner of explanation and illustration, when discussing with advanced
pupils, and another, more or less different, when addressing an
unprepared audience, we may hold as certain and even unavoidable; but
this does not amount to a double positive doctrine. Properly
speaking, indeed, the term "exoteric" (as I have just explained it
out of Aristotle himself) does not designate, or even imply, any
positive doctrine at all. It denotes a many-sided controversial
debate, in which numerous points are canvassed and few settled; the
express purpose being to bring into full daylight the perplexing
aspects of each. There are indeed a few exceptional cases, in which
"exoteric discourse" will itself have thrown up a tolerably
trustworthy result: these few (as I have above shown) Aristotle
occasionally singles out and appeals to. But as a general rule, there
is no _doctrine_ which can properly be called _exoteric_: the
"exoteric discourse" suggests many new puzzles, but terminates
without any solution at all. The doctrine, whenever any such is
proved, emerges out of the didactic process which follows.
[Footnote 49: Luc. Vit. Auct. 26.]
CHAPTER III.
CATEGORIÆ.
Of the prodigious total of works composed by Aristotle, I have
already mentioned that the larger number have perished. But there
still remain about forty treatises, of authenticity not open to any
reasonable suspicion, which attest the grandeur of his intelligence,
in respect of speculative force, positive as well as negative,
systematizing patience, comprehensive curiosity as to matters of
fact, and diversified applications of detail. In taking account of
these treatises, we perceive some in which the order of sequence is
determined by assignable reasons; as regards others, no similar
grounds of preference appear. The works called 1. De Coelo; 2. De
Generatione et Corruptione; 3. Meteorologica,--are marked out as
intended to be studied in immediate succession, and the various
Zoological treatises after them. The cluster entitled Parva Naturalia
is complementary to the treatise De Animâ. The Physica Auscultatio is
referred to in the Metaphysica, and discusses many questions
identical or analogous, standing in the relation of prior to a
posterior, as the titles indicate; though the title 'Metaphysica' is
not affixed or recognized by Aristotle himself, and the treatise so
called includes much that goes beyond the reach of the Physica. As to
the treatises on Logic, Rhetoric, Ethics, Politics, Poetics,
Mechanics, &c., we are left to fix for ourselves the most convenient
order of study. Of no one among them can we assign the date of
composition or publication. There are indeed in the Rhetorica,
Politics, and Meteorologica, various allusions which must have been
written later than some given events of known date; but these
allusions may have been later additions, and cannot be considered as
conclusively proving, though they certainly raise a presumption, that
the entire work was written subsequently to those events.
The proper order in which the works of Aristotle ought to be studied
(like the order proper for studying the Platonic dialogues),[1] was
matter of debate from the time of his earliest editors and
commentators, in the century immediately preceding the Christian era.
Boêthus the Sidonian (Strabo's contemporary and fellow-student)
recommended that the works on natural philosophy and physiology
should be perused first; contending that these were the easiest, the
most interesting, and, on the whole, the most successful among all
the Aristotelian productions. Some Platonists advised that the
ethical treatises should be put in the front rank, on the ground of
their superior importance for correcting bad habits and character;
others assigned the first place to the mathematics, as exhibiting
superior firmness in the demonstrations. But Andronikus himself, the
earliest known editor of Aristotle's works, arranged them in a
different order, placing the logical treatises at the commencement of
his edition. He considered these treatises, taken collectively, to be
not so much a part of philosophy as an _Organon_ or instrument, the
use of which must be acquired by the reader before he became
competent to grasp or comprehend philosophy; as an exposition of
method rather than of doctrine.[2] From the time of Andronikus
downward, the logical treatises have always stood first among the
written or printed works of Aristotle. They have been known under the
collective title of the 'Organon,' and as such it will be convenient
still to regard them.[3]
[Footnote 1: Scholia, p. 25, b. 37, seq. Br.; p. 321, b. 30; Diogen.
L. iii. 62. The order in which the forty-six Aristotelian treatises
stand printed in the Berlin edition, and in other preceding editions,
corresponds to the tripartite division, set forth by Aristotle
himself, of sciences or cognitions generally: 1. Theoretical; [Greek:
theôrêtikai/] 2. Practical; [Greek: praktikai/]. 3. Constructive or
Technical; [Greek: poiêtikai/].
Patricius, in his Discussiones Peripateticæ, published in 1581 (tom.
i. lib. xiii. p. 173), proclaims himself to be the first author who
will undertake to give an account of Aristotle's philosophy _from
Aristotle himself_ (instead of taking it, as others before him had
done, from the Aristotelian expositors, Andronikus, Alexander,
Porphyry, or Averroes); likewise, to be the first author who will
consult _all_ the works of Aristotle, instead of confining himself,
as his predecessors had done, to a select few of the works. Patricius
then proceeds to enumerate those works upon which alone the
professors "in Italicis scholis" lectured, and to which the attention
of all readers was restricted. 1. The Predicabilia, or Eisagoge of
Porphyry. 2. The Categoriæ. 3. The De Interpretatione. 4. The
Analytica Priora; but only the four first chapters of the first book.
5. The Analytica Posteriora; but only a few chapters of the first
book; nothing of the second. 6. The Physica; books first and second;
then parts of the third and fourth; lastly, the eighth book. 7. The
De Coelo; books first and second. 8. The De Generatione et
Corruptione; books first and second. 9. The De Animâ; all the three
books. 10. The Metaphysica; books Alpha major, Alpha minor, third,
sixth, and eleventh. "Idque, quadriennio integro, quadruplicis
ordinis Philosophi perlegunt auditoribus. De reliquis omnibus tot
libris, mirum silentium." Patricius expressly remarks that neither
the Topica nor the De Sophisticis Elenchis was touched in this full
course of four years. But he does not remark--what to a modern reader
will seem more surprising--that neither the Ethica, nor the Politica,
nor the Rhetorica, is included in the course.]
[Footnote 2: Aristot. Topica, i. p. 104, b. 1, with the Scholia of
Alexander, p. 259, a. 48 Br.; Scholia ad Analyt. Prior. p. 140, a.
47, p. 141, a. 25; also Schol. ad Categor. p. 36, a., p. 40, a., 8.
This conception of the Organon is not explicitly announced by
Aristotle, but seems quite in harmony with his views. The
contemptuous terms in which Prantl speaks of it (Gesch. der Logik, i.
136), as a silly innovation of the Stoics, are unwarranted.
Aristotle (Metaph. E. i. p. 1025, b. 26) classifies the sciences as
[Greek: theôrêtikai/, praktikai/, poiêtikai/]; next he subdivides the
first of the three into [Greek: phusikê/, mathêmatikê/, prô/tê
philosophi/a]. Brentano, after remarking that no place in this
distribution is expressly provided for Logic, explains the omission
as follows: "Diese auffallende Erscheinung erklärt sich daraus, dass
diese [the three above-named theoretical sciences] allein das reelle
Sein betrachten, und nach den drei Graden der Abstraktion in ihrer
Betrachtungsweise verschieden, geschieden werden; während die Logik
das bloss rationelle Sein, das [Greek: o(\n ô(s a)lêthe/s],
behandelt." (Ueber die Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles, p.
39.)--Investigations [Greek: peri\ tê=s a)lêthei/as, o(\n tro/pon
dei= a)pode/chesthai] are considered by Aristotle as belonging to
[Greek: ta\ A)naluktika]; enquiries into method in the first
instance, and into doctrine chiefly with a view to method (Metaphys.
[Greek: G]. p. 1005, b. 2. In Metaphys. ]Greek: G]. 1005, b. 7, he
declares that these enquiries into method, or analysis of the
_principia_ of syllogistic reasoning, belong to the Philosophia Prima
(compare Metaphys. Z. 12, p. 1037, b. 8). Schwegler in his Commentary
(p. 161) remarks that this is one of the few passages in which
Aristotle indicates the relation in which Logic stands to
Metaphysics, or First Philosophy. The question has been started among
his [Greek: A)pori/ai] Metaph. B. 2, p. 999, b. 30.]
[Footnote 3: Respecting the title of Organon which was sometimes
applied to the Analytica Posteriora only, see Waitz ad Organ, ii. p.
294.]
These treatises are six in number:--1. Categoriæ;[4] 2. De
Interpretatione, or De Enunciatione; 3. Analytica Priora; 4.
Analytica Posteriora; 5. Topica; 6. De Sophisticis Elenchis. This
last short treatise--De Sophisticis Elenchis--belongs naturally to
the Topica which precedes it, and of which it ought to be ranked as
the ninth or concluding book. Waitz has printed it as such in his
edition of the Organon; but as it has been generally known with a
separate place and title, I shall not depart from the received
understanding.
[Footnote 4: Some eminent critics, Prantl and Bonitz among them,
consider the treatise Categoriæ not to be the work of Aristotle. The
arguments on which this opinion rests are not convincing to me; and
even if they were, the treatise could not be left out of
consideration, since the _doctrine_ of the Ten Categories is
indisputably Aristotelian. See Zeller, Die Phil. der Griech. ii. 2,
pp. 50, 51, 2nd ed.]
Aristotle himself does not announce these six treatises as forming a
distinct aggregate, nor as belonging to one and the same department,
nor as bearing one comprehensive name. We find indeed in the Topica
references to the Analytica, and in the Analytica references to the
Topica. In both of them, the ten Categories are assumed and
presupposed, though the treatise describing them is not expressly
mentioned: to both also, the contents of the treatise De
Interpretatione or Enunciatione, though it is not named, are
indispensable. The affinity and interdependence of the six is
evident, and justifies the practice of the commentators in treating
them as belonging to one and the same department. To that department
there belonged also several other treatises of Aristotle, not now
preserved, but specified in the catalogue of his lost works; and
these his disciple Theophrastus, Eudemus, and Phanias, had before
them. As all these three disciples composed treatises of their own on
the same or similar topics,[5] amplifying, elucidating, or
controverting the views of their master, the Peripatetics immediately
succeeding them must have possessed a copious logical literature, in
which the six treatises now constituting the Organon appeared as
portions, but not as a special aggregate in themselves.
[Footnote 5: Ammonius ap. Schol. p. 28, a. 41; p. 33, b. 27, Br.]
Of the two treatises which stand first in the Aristotelian
Organon--the Categoriæ and the De Interpretatione--each forms in a
certain sense the complement of the other. The treatise De
Interpretatione handles Propositions (combinations of terms in the
way of Subject and Predicate), with prominent reference to the
specific attribute of a Proposition--the being true or false, the
object of belief or disbelief; the treatise Categoriæ deals with
these same Terms (to use Aristotle's own phrase) pronounced without
or apart from such combination. In his definition of the simple
Term, the Proposition is at the same time assumed to be foreknown
as the correlate or antithesis to it.[6]
[Footnote 6: [Greek: Ta\ a)/neu sumplokê=s lego/mena--tô=n kata\
mêdemi/an sumplokê\n legome/nôna] Categ. p. 1, a. 16, b. 25). See
Schol. ad Aristot. Physica, p. 323, b. 25, Br.; and Bonitz ad
Aristotel. Metaph. (A. p. 987) p. 90.
The Categories of Aristotle appear to formed one of the most
prominent topics of the teaching of Themistius: rebutting the charge,
advanced both against himself, and, in earlier days, against Sokrates
and the Sophists, of rendering his pupils presumptuous and conceited,
he asks, [Greek: ê)kou/sate de\ au)= tinos tô=n e)mô=n e)pitêdei/ôn
u(psêlogoume/nou kai\ brenthuome/nou _e)pi\ toi=s sunônu/mois ê)\
o(mônu/moi=s ê)\ parônu/mois_]; (Orat. xxiii. p. 351.)
Reference is made (in the Scholia on the Categoriæ, p. 43, b. 19) to
a classification of names made by Speusippus, which must have been at
least as early as that of Aristotle; perhaps earlier, since
Speusippus died in 339 B.C. We do not hear enough of this to
understand clearly what it was. Boêthus remarked that Aristotle had
omitted to notice some distinctions drawn by Speusippus on this
matter, Schol. p. 43, a. 29. Compare a remark in Aristot. De Coelo,
i. p. 280, b. 2.]
The first distinction pointed out by Aristotle among simple,
uncombined Terms, or the things denoted thereby, is the Homonymous,
the Synonymous, and the Paronymous. _Homonymous_ are those which are
called by the same name, used in a different sense or with a
different definition or rational explanation. _Synonymous_ are those
called by the same name in the same sense. _Paronymous_ are those
called by two names, of which the one is derived from the other by
varying the inflexion or termination.[7]
[Footnote 7: Aristot. Categor. p. 1, a. 1-15.]
We can hardly doubt that it was Aristotle who first gave this
peculiar distinctive meaning to the two words Homonymous and
Synonymous, rendered in modern phraseology (through the Latin)
_Equivocal_ and _Univocal_. Before his time this important
distinction between different terms had no technical name to
designate it. The service rendered to Logic by introducing such a
technical term, and by calling attention to the lax mode of speaking
which it indicated, was great. In every branch of his writings
Aristotle perpetually reverts to it, applying it to new cases, and
especially to those familiar universal words uttered most freely and
frequently, under the common persuasion that their meaning is not
only thoroughly known but constant and uniform. As a general fact,
students are now well acquainted with this source of error, though
the stream of particular errors flowing from it is still abundant,
ever renewed and diversified. But in the time of Aristotle the source
itself had never yet been pointed out emphatically to notice, nor
signalized by any characteristic term as by a beacon. The natural
bias which lead us to suppose that one term always carries one and
the same meaning, was not counteracted by any systematic warning or
generalized expression. Sokrates and Plato did indeed expose many
particular examples of undefined and equivocal phraseology. No part
of the Platonic writings is more valuable than the dialogues in which
this operation is performed, forcing the respondent to feel how
imperfectly he understands the phrases constantly in use. But it is
rarely Plato's practice to furnish generalized positive warnings or
systematic distinctions. He has no general term corresponding to
homonymous or equivocal; and there are even passages where (under the
name of Prodikus) he derides or disparages a careful distinctive
analysis of different significations of the same name. To recognize a
class of equivocal terms and assign thereto a special class-name, was
an important step in logical procedure; and that step, among so many
others, was made by Aristotle.[8]
[Footnote 8: In the instructive commentary of Dexippus on the
Categoriæ (contained in a supposed dialogue between Dexippus and his
pupil Seleukus, of which all that remains has been recently published
by Spengel, Munich, 1859), that commentator defends Aristotle against
some critics who wondered why he began with these Ante-predicaments
([Greek: o(mô/numa, sunô/numa], &c.), instead of proceeding at once
to the Predicaments or Categories themselves. Dexippus remarks that
without understanding this distinction between _equivoca_ and
_univoca_, the Categories themselves could not be properly
appreciated; for Ens--[Greek: to\ o)\n]--is homonymous in reference
to all the Categories, and not a Summum Genus, comprehending the
Categories as distinct species under it; while each Category is a
Genus in reference to its particulars. Moreover, Dexippus observes
that this distinction of homonyms and synonyms was altogether unknown
and never self-suggested to the ordinary mind ([Greek: o(/sôn ga\r
e)/nnoian ou)k e)/chomen, tou/tôn pro/lêpsin ou)k e)/chomen], p. 20),
and therefore required to be brought out first of all at the
beginning; whereas the Post-predicaments (to which we shall come
later on) were postponed to the end, because they were cases of
familiar terms loosely employed, (See Spengel, Dexipp. pp. 19, 20,
21.)]
Though Aristotle has professed to distinguish between terms
implicated in predication, and terms not so implicated,[9] yet when
he comes to explain the functions of the latter class, he considers
them in reference to their functions as constituent members of
propositions. He immediately begins by distinguishing four sorts of
matters (_Entia_): That which is affirmable of a Subject, but is not
in a Subject; That which is in a Subject, but is not affirmable of a
Subject; That which is both in a Subject, and affirmable of a
Subject; That which is neither in a Subject, nor affirmable of a
Subject.[10]
[Footnote 9: Aristot. Categor. p. 1, a. 16. [Greek: tô=n legome/nôn
ta\ me\n kata\ sumplokê\n le/getai, ta\ d' a)/neu sumplokê=s; ta\
me\n ou)=n kata\ sumplokê\n oi(=on a)/nthrôpos tre/chei, a)/nthrôpos
nika=|; ta\ d' a)/neu sumplokê=s oi)=on a)/nthrôpos, bou=s, tre/chei,
nika=|.]
It will be seen that the meaning and function of the single word can
only explained relatively to the complete proposition, which must be
assumed as foreknown. That which Aristotle discriminates in this
treatise, in the phrases--[Greek: le/gesthai kata\ sumplokê\n] and
[Greek: le/gesthai a)/neu sumplokê=s] is equivalent to what we read
in the De Interpretatione (p. 16, b. 27, p. 17, a. 17) differently
expressed, [Greek: phônê\ sêmantikê\ ô(s kata/phasis] and [Greek:
phônê\ sêmantikê\ ô(s pha/sis].]
[Footnote 10: Aristot. Categor. p. 1, a. 20.]
This fundamental quadruple distinction of _Entia_, which serves as an
introduction to the ten Categories or Predicaments, belongs to words
altogether according to their relative places or functions in the
proposition; the meanings of the words being classified accordingly.
That the learner may understand it, he ought properly to be master of
the first part of the treatise De Interpretatione, wherein the
constituent elements of a proposition are explained: so intimate is
the connection between that treatise and this.
The classification applies to _Entia_ (Things or Matters)
universally, and is thus a first step in Ontology. He here looks at
Ontology in one of its several diverse aspects--as it enters into
predication, and furnishes the material for Subjects and Predicates,
the constituent members of a proposition.
Ontology, or the Science of _Ens quatenus Ens_, occupies an important
place in Aristotle's scientific programme; bearing usually the title
of First Philosophy, sometimes Theology, though never (in his works)
the more modern title of Metaphysica. He describes it as the
universal and comprehensive Science, to which all other sciences are
related as parts or fractions. Ontology deals with _Ens_ in its
widest sense, as an _Unum_ not generic but analogical--distinguishing
the derivative varieties into which it may be distributed, and
setting out the attributes and accompaniments of _Essentia_
universally; while other sciences, such as Geometry, Astronomy, &c.,
confine themselves to distinct branches of that whole;[11] each
having its own separate class of _Entia_ for special and exclusive
study. This is the characteristic distinction of Ontology, as
Aristotle conceives it; he does not set it in antithesis to
Phenomenology, according to the distinction that has become current
among modern metaphysicians.
[Footnote 11: Aristot. Metaphys. [Greek: G]. p. 1003, a. 21, 25-33,
E. p. 1025, b. 8. [Greek: e)/stin e)pistê/mê tis ê)\ theôrei= to\
o)\n ê(=| o)\n kai\ ta\ tou/tô| u(pa/rchonta kath' au(to/; au(/tê d'
e)sti\n ou)demia=| tô=n a)/llôn e)piskopei= _katho/lou peri\ tou=
o)/ntos ê(=| o(/n, a)lla\ me/ros au)tou= ti a)potemo/menai peri\
tou/tou theôrou=si to\ sumbebêko/s], &c. Compare p. 1005, a. 2-14.]
Now _Ens_ (or _Entia_), in the doctrine of Aristotle, is not a
synonymous or univocal word, but an homonymous or equivocal word; or,
rather, it is something between the two, being equivocal, with a
certain qualification. Though not a _Summum Genus_, _i.e._ not
manifesting throughout all its particulars generic unity, nor
divisible into species by the addition of well-marked essential
_differentiæ_, it is an analogical aggregate, or a _Summum Analogon_,
comprehending under it many subordinates which bear the same name
from being all related in some way or other to a common root or
_fundamentum_, the relationship being both diverse in kind and nearer
or more distant in degree. The word _Ens_ is thus homonymous, yet in
a qualified sense. While it is not univocal, it is at the same time
not absolutely equivocal. It is _multivocal_ (if we may coin such a
word), having many meanings held together by a multifarious and
graduated relationship to one common _fundamentum_.[12] _Ens_ (or
_Entia_), in this widest sense, is the theme of Ontology or First
Philosophy, and is looked at by Aristotle in four different principal
aspects.[13]
[Footnote 12: Simplikius speaks of these Analoga as [Greek: to\
me/son tô=n te sunônu/môn kai\ tô=n o(mônu/môn, to\ a)ph' e(no/s],
&c. Schol. ad Categor. p. 69, b. 29, Brand. See also Metaphys. Z. p.
1030, a. 34.
Dexippus does not recognize, formally and under a distinct title,
this intermediate stage between [Greek: sunô/numa] and [Greek:
o(mô/numa]. He states that Aristotle considered Ens as [Greek:
o(mô/numon], while other philosophers considered it as [Greek:
sunô/numon] (Dexippus, p. 26, book i. sect. 19, ed. Spengel). But he
intimates that the ten general heads called Categories have a certain
continuity and interdependence ([Greek: sune/cheian kai\
a)llêlouchi/an]) each with the others, branching out from [Greek:
ou)si/a] in ramifications more or less straggling (p. 48, book ii.
sects. 1, 2, Spengel). The list (he says, p. 47) does not depend upon
[Greek: diai/resis] (generic division), nor yet is it simple
enumeration ([Greek: a)pari/thmêsis] of incoherent items. In the
Physica, vii. 4, p. 249, a. 23, Aristotle observes: [Greek: ei)si\
de\ tô=n o(mônumiôn ai( me\n polu\ a)pe/chousi ai( de\ e)/chousai/
tina o(moio/têta, ai( d' e)ggu\s ê)\ ge/nei ê)\ a)nalogi/a|, dio\ ou)
dokou=sin o(mônumi/ai ei)=nai ou)=sai.]]
[Footnote 13: Aristot. Metaphys. [Greek: D]. p. 1017, a. 7, E. p.
1025, a. 34, p. 1026, a. 33, b. 4; upon which last passage see the
note of Bonitz.]
1. [Greek: To\ o)\n kata\ sumbebêko/s]--_Ens per Accidens_--_Ens_
accidental, or rather concomitant, either as rare and exceptional
attribute to a subject, or along with some other accident in the same
common subject.
2. [Greek: To\ o)\n ô(s a)lêthe/s, kai\ to\ mê\ o)\n ô(s
pseu=dos]--_Ens_, in the sense /of Truth, _Non-Ens_, in the sense of
Falsehood. This is the _Ens_ of the Proposition; a true affirmation
or denial falls under _Ens_ in this mode, when the mental conjunction
of terms agrees with reality; a false affirmation or denial, where no
such agreement exists, falls under _Non-Ens_.[14]
[Footnote 14: Aristot. Metaph. E. 4, p. 1027, b. 18,--p. 1028, a. 4.
[Greek: ou) ga\r e)sti to\ pseu=dos kai\ to\ a)lêthe\s e)n toi=s
pra/gmasin--a)ll' e)n dianoi/a|--ou)k e)/xô dêlou=sin ou)=sa/n tina
phu/sin tou= o)/ntos.] Also [Greek: Th]. 10, p. 1051, b. 1: [Greek:
to\ kuriô/tata o)\n a)lêthes kai\ pseu=dos]. In a Scholion, Alexander
remarks: [Greek: to\ de\ ô(s a)lêthô=s o)\n pa/thos e)sti\ kai\
bou/lêma dianoi/as, to\ de\ zêtei=n to\ e(ka/stô| dokou=n ou)
spho/dra a)nagkai=on.]]
3. [Greek: To\ o)\n duna/mei kai\ to\ o)\n e)nergei/a|]--_Ens_,
potential, actual.
4. [Greek: To\ o)\n kata\ ta\ schê/mata tô=n katêgoriô=n]--_Ens_,
according to the ten varieties of the Categories, to be presently
explained.
These four are the principal aspects under which Aristotle looks at
the aggregate comprised by the equivocal or multivocal word _Entia_.
In all the four branches, the varieties comprised are not species
under a common genus, correlating, either as co-ordinate or
subordinate, one to the other; they are _analoga_, all having
relationship with a common term, but having no other necessary
relationship with each other. Aristotle does not mean that these four
modes of distributing this vast aggregate, are the only modes
possible; for he himself sometimes alludes to other modes of
distributions.[15] Nor would he maintain that the four distributions
were completely distinguished from each other, so that the same
subordinate fractions are not comprehended in any two; for on the
contrary, the branches overlap each other and coincide to a great
degree, especially the first and fourth. But he considers the four as
discriminating certain distinct aspects of _Entia_ or _Entitas_, more
important than any other aspects thereof that could be pointed out,
and as affording thus the best basis and commencement for the Science
called Ontology.
[Footnote 15: Aristot. Metaph. [Greek: G]. p. 1003, a. 33, b. 10.
Compare the able treatise of Brentano, "Ueber die Bedeutung des
Seienden nach Aristoteles," pp. 6, 7.]
Of these four heads, however, the first and second are rapidly
dismissed by Aristotle in the Metaphysica,[16] being conceived as
having little reference to real essence, and therefore belonging more
to Logic than to Ontology; _i.e._ to the subjective processes of
naming, predicating, believing, and inferring rather than to the
objective world of Perceivables and Cogitables.[17] It is the third
and fourth that are treated in the Metaphysica; while it is the
fourth only (_Ens_ according to the ten figures of the Categories)
which is set forth and elucidated in this first treatise of the
Organon, where Aristotle appears to blend Logic and Ontology into
one.
[Footnote 16: Aristot. Metaph. E. p. 1027, b. 16, p. 1028. a. 6.]
[Footnote 17: Aristot. Metaph. [Greek: Th]. 10, p. 1051, b. 2-15,
with Schwegler's Comment, p. 186. This is the distinction drawn by
Simplikius (Schol. ad Categ. p. 76, b. 47) between the Organon and
the Metaphysica: [Greek: Ai( ga\r a)rchai\ kata\ me\n tê/n
sêmantikê\n au)tô=n le/xin e)n tê=| logikê=| pragmatei/a| dêlou=ntai,
kata\ de\ ta\ sêmaino/mena e)n tê=| Meta\ ta\ Phusika\ oi)kei/ôs.]
[Greek: Ta\ o)/nta] are equivalent to [Greek: ta\ lego/mena], in this
and the other logical treatises of Aristotle. Categ. p. 1, a. 16-20,
b. 25; Analyt. Prior. i. p. 43, a. 25.
This is the logical aspect of Ontology; that is, Entia are considered
as Objects to be named, and to serve as Subjects or Predicates for
propositions: every such term having a fixed denotation, and (with
the exception of proper names) a fixed connotation, known to speakers
and hearers.
[Greek: Ta\ lego/mena] (or Entia considered in this aspect) are
distinguished by Aristotle into two classes: 1. [Greek: Ta\ lego/mena
_kata\ sumplokê/n_, oi(=on a)/nthrôpos tre/chei, a)/nthropos nika=|.]
2. [Greek: Ta\ lego/mena _a)/neu sumplokê=s_] (or [Greek: kata\
mêdemi/an sumplokê/n]) [Greek: oi(=on a)/nthrôpos, bou=s, tre/chei,
nika=|.]
We are to observe here, that in Logic the Proposition or Enunciation
is the Prius Naturâ, which must be presupposed as known before we can
understand what the separate terms are (Analytic. Prior. i. p. 24, a.
16): just as the right angle must be understood before we can explain
what is an acute or an obtuse angle (to use an illustration of
Aristotle; see Metaphys. Z. p. 1035, b. 7). We must understand the
entire logical act, called Affirming or Denying, before we can
understand the functions of the two factors or correlates with which
that act is performed. Aristotle defines the Term by means of the
Proposition, [Greek: o(/ron de\ kalô= ei) o)\n dialu/etai ê(
pro/tasis] (Anal. Pr. i. 24, b. 16).
[Greek: Ta\ lego/mena], as here used by Aristotle, coincides in
meaning with what the Stoics afterwards called [Greek: Ta\
lekta/]--of two classes: 1. [Greek: _lekta\ au)totelê=_], one branch
of which, [Greek: ta\ a)xiô/mata], are equivalent to the Aristotelian
[Greek: ta\ kata\ sumplokê\n lego/mena]. 2. [Greek: _lekta\
e)llipê=_], equivalent to [Greek: ta\ a)/neu sumplokê=s lego/mena]
(Diogen. Laert. vii. 43, 44, 63, 64; Sext. Emp. adv. Mathemat. viii.
69, 70, 74): equivalent also, seemingly, to [Greek: ta\ dianoêta\] in
Aristotle: [Greek: o( dianoêto\s A)ristome/nês] (Anal. Pr. I. p. 47,
b. 22).
Hobbes observes (Computation or Logic, part i. 2, 5): "Nor is it at
all necessary that every name should be the name of something. For as
these, _a man_, _a tree_, _a stone_, are the names of the things
themselves, so the images of a man, of a tree, of a stone, which are
represented to men sleeping, have their names also, though they be
not things, but only fictions and phantasms of things. For we can
remember these; and therefore it is no less necessary that they have
names to mark and signify them, than the things themselves. Also this
word _future_ is a name; but no future thing has yet any being.
Moreover, that which neither is, nor has been, nor ever shall or ever
can be, has a name--_impossible_. To conclude, this word _nothing_ is
a name, which yet cannot be name of any thing; for when we subtract
two and three from five, and, so nothing remaining, we would call
that subtraction to mind, this speech _nothing remains_, and in it
the word _nothing_, is not unuseful. And for the same reason we say
truly, _less than nothing_ remains, when we subtract more from less;
for the mind feigns such remains as these for doctrine's sake, and
desires, as often as is necessary, to call the same to memory. But
seeing every name has some relation to that which is named, though
that which we name be not always a thing that has a being in nature,
yet is lawful for doctrine's sake to apply the word _thing_ to
whatsoever we name; as it were all one whether that thing truly
existent, or be only feigned."
The Greek neuter gender ([Greek: to\ lego/menon] or [Greek: to\
lekto/n, ta\ lego/mena] or [Greek: ta\ lekta/]) covers all that
Hobbes here includes under the word _thing_.--Scholia ad Aristot.
Physic. I. i. p. 323, a. 21, Brand.: [Greek: o)noma/zontai me\n kai\
ta\ mê\ o)/nta, o(ri/zontai de\ mo/na ta\ o)/nta.]]
Of this mixed character, partly logical, partly ontological, is the
first distinction set forth in the Categoriæ--the distinction between
matters _predicated of_ a Subject, and matters which are _in_ a
Subject--the Subject itself being assumed as the _fundamentum_
correlative to both of them. The definition given of that which is
_in_ a Subject is ontological: viz., "_In_ a Subject, I call that
which is in anything, not as a part, yet so that it cannot exist
separately from that in which it is."[18] By these two negative
characteristics, without any mark positive, does Aristotle define
what is meant by being _in_ a Subject. Modern logicians, and Hobbes
among them, can find no better definition for an Accident; though
Hobbes remarks truly, that Accident cannot be properly defined, but
must be elucidated by examples.[19]
[Footnote 18: Aristot. Categ. p. 1, a. 24.]
[Footnote 19: Hobbes, Computation or Logic, part i. 3, 3, i. 6, 2,
ii. 8, 2-3.]
The distinction here drawn by Aristotle between being _predicated of_
a Subject, and being in a Subject, coincides with that between
essential and non-essential predication: all the predicates
(including the _differentia_) which belong to the essence, fall under
the first division;[20] all those which do not belong to the essence,
under the latter. The Subjects--what Aristotle calls the First
Essences or Substances, those which are essences or substances in the
fullest and strictest meaning of the word--are concrete individual
things or persons; such as Sokrates, this man, that horse or tree.
These are never employed as predicates at all (except by a distorted
and unnatural structure of the proposition, which Aristotle indicates
as possible, but declines to take into account); they are always
Subjects of different predicates, and are, in the last analysis, the
Subjects of all predicates. But besides these First Essences, there
are also Second Essences--Species and Genus, which stand to the first
Essence in the relation of predicates to a Subject, and to the other
Categories in the relation of Subjects to predicates.[21] These
Second Essences are less of Essences than the First, which alone is
an Essence in the fullest and most appropriate sense. Among the
Second Essences, Species is more of an Essence than Genus, because it
belongs more closely and specially to the First Essence; while Genus
is farther removed from it. Aristotle thus recognizes a graduation of
_more or less_ in Essence; the individual is more Essence, or more
complete as an Essence, than the Species, the Species more than the
Genus. As he recognizes a First Essence, _i.e._ an individual object
(such as Sokrates, this horse, &c.), so he also recognizes an
individual accident (this particular white colour, that particular
grammatical knowledge) which is _in_ a Subject, but is not
_predicated of_ a Subject; this particular white colour exists _in_
some given body, but is not _predicable of_ any body.[22]
[Footnote 20: Aristot. Categ. p. 3, a. 20. It appears that Andronikus
did not draw the line between these two classes of predicates in same
manner as Aristotle: he included many non-essential predicates in
[Greek: ta\ kath' u(pokeime/nou]. See Simplikius, ad Categorias,
Basil. 1551, fol. 13, 21, B. Nor was either Alexander or Porphyry
careful to observe the distinction between the two classes. See
Schol. ad Metaphys. p. 701. b. 23, Br.; Schol. ad De Interpret. p.
106, a. 29, Br. And when Aristotle says, Analyt. Prior. i. p. 24, b.
26, [Greek: to\ de\ e)n o(/lô| ei)nai e(/teron e(te/rô|, kai\ to\
kata\ panto\s katêgorei=sthai thate/rou tha/teron, tau)to/n e)stin],
he seems himself to forget the distinction entirely.]
[Footnote 21: Categor. p. 2, a. 15, seq. In Aristotle phraseology it
is not said that Second Essences are contained in First Essences, but
that First Essences are contained in Second Essences, _i.e._ in the
species which Second Essences signify. See the Scholion to p. 3, a.
9, in Waitz, vol. i. p. 32.]
[Footnote 22: Arist. Categ. p. 1, a. 26; b. 7: [Greek: A)nplô=s de\
ta\ a)/toma kai\ e(\n a)rithmô=| kat' ou)deno\s u(pokeime/nou
le/getai, e)n u(pokeime/nô| de\ e(/nia ou)de\n kôlu/ei ei)=nai; ê(
ga/r tis grammatikê\ tô=n e)n u(pokeime/nô| e)sti/n.] Aristotle here
recognizes an attribute as "individual and as numerically one;" and
various other logicians have followed him. But is it correct to say,
that an attribute, when it cannot be farther divided specifically,
and is thus the lowest in its own predicamental series, is _Unum
Numero_? The attribute may belong to an indefinite number of
different objects; and can we count it as _One_, in the same sense in
which we count each of these objects as _One_? I doubt whether _Unum
Numero_ be applicable to attributes. Aristotle declares that the
[Greek: deute/ra ou)si/a] is not _Unum Numero_ like the [Greek:
prô/tê ou)si/a--ou) ga\r e)n e)sti to\ u(pokei/menon Ô(/sper ê(
prô/tê ou)si/a, a)lla\ kata\ pollô=n o( a)/nthrôpos le/getai kai\ to\
zô=|on (Categ. p. 3, b. 16). Upon the same principle, I think, he
ought to declare that the attribute is not _Unum Numero_; for though
it is not (in his language) _predicable of_ many Subjects, yet it is
_in_ many Subjects. It cannot correctly be called _Unum Numero_,
according to the explanation which he gives of that phrase in two
passages of the Metaphysica, B. p. 999, b. 33; [Greek: D]. p. 1016,
b. 32: [Greek: a)rithmô=| me\n ô(=n ê( u(/lê mi/a], &c.]
Respecting the logical distinction, which Aristotle places in the
commencement of this treatise on the Categories--between predicates
which are _affirmed of_ a Subject, and predicates which are _in_ a
Subject[23]--we may remark that it turns altogether upon the name by
which you describe the predicate. Thus he tells us that the Species
and Genus (man, animal), and the Differentia (rational), may be
_predicated of_ Sokrates, but are not _in_ Sokrates; while knowledge
is _in_ Sokrates, but cannot be _predicated of_ Sokrates; and may be
_predicated of_ grammar, but is not _in_ grammar. But if we look at
this comparison, we shall see that in the last-mentioned example, the
predicate is described by an abstract word (knowledge); while in the
preceding examples it is described by a concrete word (man, animal,
rational).[24] If, in place of these three last words, we substitute
the abstract words corresponding to them--humanity, animality,
rationality--we shall have to say that these are _in_ Sokrates,
though they cannot (in their abstract form) be _predicated of_
Sokrates, but only in the form of their concrete paronyms, which
Aristotle treats as a distinct predication. So if, instead of the
abstract word knowledge, we employ the concrete word knowing or wise,
we can no longer say that this is _in_ Sokrates, and that it may be
_predicated of_ grammar. Abstract alone can be _predicated of_
abstract; concrete alone can be _predicated of_ concrete; if we
describe the relation between Abstract and Concrete, we must say, The
Abstract is _in_ the Concrete--the Concrete contains or embodies the
Abstract. Indeed we find Aristotle referring the same predicate, when
described by the abstract name, to one Category; and when described
by the concrete paronymous adjective, to another and different
Category.[25] The names Concrete and Abstract were not in the
philosophical vocabulary of his day. In this passage of the
Categoriæ, he establishes a distinction between predicates essential
and predicates non-essential; the latter he here declares to be _in_
the Subject, the former not to be in it, but to be _co-efficients of_
its essence. But we shall find that he does not adhere to this
distinction even throughout the present treatise, still less in other
works. It seems to be a point of difference between the Categoriæ on
one side, and the Physica and Metaphysica on the other, that in the
Categoriæ he is more disposed to found supposed real distinctions on
verbal etiquette, and on precise adherence to the syntactical
structure of a proposition.[26]
[Footnote 23: The distinction is expressed by Ammonius (Schol. p. 51,
b. 46) as follows:--[Greek: ai( prô=tai ou)si/ai u(pokeu=ntai pa=sin,
a)ll' ou)ch o(moi/ôs; toi=s me\n ga\r _pro\s u(/parxin_, tou/testi
toi=s sumbebêko/sin, toi=s de\ _pro\s katêgori/an_, tou/testi tai=s
katho/lou ou)si/ais.]]
[Footnote 24: Ueberweg makes a remark similar to this.--System der
Logik, sect. 56, note, p. 110, ed. second.]
[Footnote 25: The difference of opinion as to the proper mode of
describing the Differentia--whether by the concrete word [Greek:
pezo\n], or by the abstract [Greek: pezo/tês]--gives occasion to an
objection against Aristotle's view, and to a reply from Dexippus not
very conclusive (Dexippus, book ii. s. 22, pp. 60, 61, ed. Spengel).]
[Footnote 26: Categor. p. 3, a. 3. In the Physica, iv. p. 210, a.
14-30, Aristotle enumerates nine different senses of the phrase
[Greek: e(/n tini]. His own use of the phrase is not always uniform
or consistent. If we compare the Scholia on the Categoriæ, pp. 44, 45,
53, 58, 59, Br., with the Scholia on the Physica, pp. 372, 373, Br.,
we shall see that the Commentators were somewhat embarrassed by his
fluctuation. The doctrine of the Categoriæ was found especially
difficult in its application to the Differentia.
In Analyt. Post. i. p. 83, a. 30, Aristotle says, [Greek: o(/sa de\
mê\ ou)si/an sêmai/nei, dei= kata/ tinos u(pokeime/nou
katêgorei=sthai], which is at variance with the language of the
Categoriæ, as the Scholiast remarks, p. 228, a. 33. The like may be
said about Metaphys. B. p. 1001, b. 29; [Greek: D]. p. 1017, b. 13.
See the Scholia of Alexander, p. 701, b. 25, Br.
See also De Gener. et Corrupt. p. 319, b. 8; Physic. i. p. 185, a.
31: [Greek: ou)the\n ga\r tô=n a)/llôn chôristo/n e)sti para\ tê\n
ou)si/an; pa/nta ga\r kath' u(pokeime/nou tê=s ou)si/as le/getai],
where Simplikius remarks that the phrase is used [Greek: a)nti\ tou=
e)n u(pokeime/nô|] (Schol. p. 328, b. 43).]
Lastly, Aristotle here makes one important observation respecting
those predicates which he describes as (not _in a Subject_ but)
_affirmed_ or _denied of_ a Subject--_i.e._ the essential predicates.
In these (he says) whatever predicate can be truly affirmed or denied
of the predicate, the same can be truly affirmed or denied of the
Subject.[27] This observation deserves notice, because it is in fact
a brief but distinct announcement of his main theory of the
Syllogism; which theory he afterwards expands in the Analytica
Priora, and traces into its varieties and ramifications.
[Footnote 27: Categor. p. 1, b. 10-15.]
After such preliminaries, Aristotle proceeds[28] to give the
enumeration of his Ten Categories or Predicaments; under one or other
of which, every subject or predicate, considered as capable of
entering into a proposition, must belong: 1. _Essence_ or
_Substance_; such as, man, horse. 2. _How much_ or _Quantity_; such
as, two cubits long, three cubits long. 3. _What manner of_ or
_Quality_; such as, white, erudite. 4. _Ad aliquid_--_To something_
or _Relation_; such as, double, half, greater. 5. _Where_; such as,
in the market-place, in the Lykeium. 6. _When_; such as, yesterday,
last year. 7. _In what posture_; such as, he stands up, he is sitting
down. 8. _To have_; such as, to be shod, to be armed. 9. _Activity_;
such as, he is cutting, he is turning. 10. _Passivity_; such as, he
is being cut, he is being burned.
[Footnote 28: Ibid. p. 1, b. 25, seq.]
_Ens_ in its complete state--concrete, individual, determinate--
includes an embodiment of all these ten Categories; the First _Ens_
being the Subject of which the rest are predicates. Whatever question
be asked respecting any individual Subject, the information given in
the answer must fall, according to Aristotle, under one or more of
these ten general heads; while the full outfit of the individual will
comprise some predicate under each of them. Moreover, each of the ten
is a _Generalissimum_; having more or fewer species contained under
it, but not being itself contained under any larger genus (_Ens_ not
being a genus) So that Aristotle does not attempt to define or
describe any one of the ten; his only way of explaining is by citing
two or three illustrative examples of each. Some of the ten are even
of wider extent than _Summa Genera_; thus, Quality cannot be
considered as a true genus, comprehending generically all the cases
falling under it. It is a _Summum Analogon_, reaching beyond the
comprehension of a genus; an analogous or multivocal name, applied to
many cases vaguely and remotely akin to each other.[29] And again the
same particular predicate may be ranked both under Quality and under
Relation; it need not belong exclusively to either one of them.[30]
Moreover, Good, like _Ens_ or _Unum_, is common to all the
Categories, but is differently represented in each.[31]
[Footnote 29: Aristot. Categor. p. 8, b. 26. [Greek: e)/sti de\ ê(
poio/tês tô=n pleonachô=s legome/nôn], &c.
See the Scholia, p. 68, b. 69 a., Brandis. Ammonius gives the true
explanation of this phrase, [Greek: tô=n pleonachô=s legome/nôn] (p.
69, b. 7). Alexander and Simplikius try to make out that it implies
here a [Greek: sunô/nomon].]
[Footnote 30: Aristot. Categor. p. 11, a. 37. Compare the Scholion of
Dexippus, p. 48, a. 28-37.]
[Footnote 31: Aristot. Ethic. Nikomach. i. p. 1096, a. 25; Ethic.
Eudem. i. p. 1217, b. 25.]
Aristotle comments at considerable length upon the four first of the
ten Categories. 1. Essence or Substance. 2. Quantity. 3. Quality. 4.
Relation. As to the six last, he says little upon any of them; upon
some, nothing at all.
His decuple partition of _Entia_ or _Enunciata_ is founded entirely
upon a logical principle. He looks at them in their relation to
Propositions; and his ten classes discriminate the relation which
they bear to each other as parts or constituent elements of a
proposition. Aristotle takes his departure, not from any results of
scientific research, but from common speech; and from the dialectic,
frequent in his time, which debated about matters of common life and
talk, about received and current opinions.[32] We may presume him to
have studied and compared a variety of current propositions, so as to
discover what were the different relations in which Subjects and
Predicates did stand or could stand to each other; also the various
questions which might be put respecting any given subject, with the
answers suitable to be returned.[33]
[Footnote 32: Waitz, ad Aristot. Categor. p. 284: "Id Categoriis non
de ipsâ rerum natura et veritate exponit, sed res tales capit, quales
apparent in communi vita homini philosophia non imbuto, unde fit, ut
in Categoriis alia sit [Greek: prô/tê ou)si/a] et in prima
philosophia: illa enim partes habet, hæc vero non componitor ex
partibus."
Compare Metaphys. Z. p. 1032, b. 2, and the [Greek: a)pori/a] in Z.
p. 1029, a., p. 1037, a. 28.
The different meaning of [Greek: prô/tê ou)si/a] in the Categoriæ and
in the Metaphysica, is connected with various difficulties and
seeming discrepancies in the Aristotelian theory of cognition, which
I shall advert to in a future chapter. See Zeller, Philos. der
Griech. ii. 2, pp. 234, 262; Heyder, Aristotelische und Hegelsche
Dialektik, p. 141, seq.]
[Footnote 33: Thus he frequently supposes a question put, an answer
given, and the proper mode of answering. Categor. p. 2, b. 8: [Greek:
e)a\n ga\r a)podidô=| tis tê\n prô/tên ou)si/an ti/ e)sti,
gnôrimô/teron kai\ oi)keio/teron a)podô/sei], &c.; also ibid. p. 2,
b. 32; p. 3, a. 4, 20.]
Aristotle ranks as his first and fundamental Category Substance or
Essence--[Greek: Ou)si/a]; the abstract substantive word
corresponding to [Greek: To\ o)/n]; which last is the vast aggregate,
not generically One but only analogically One, destined to be
distributed among the ten Categories as _Summa Genera_. The First
_Ens_ or First Essence--that which is _Ens_ in the fullest sense--is
the _individual_ concrete person or thing in nature; Sokrates,
Bukephalus, this man, that horse, that oak-tree, &c. This First _Ens_
is indispensable as Subject or _Substratum_ for all the other
Categories, and even for predication generally. It is a Subject only;
it never appears as a predicate of anything else. As _Hic Aliquis_ or
_Hoc Aliquid_, it lies at the bottom (either expressed or implied) of
all the work of predication. It is _Ens_ or Essence most of all, _par
excellence_; and is so absolutely indispensable, that if all First
_Entia_ were supposed to be removed, neither Second _Entia_ nor any
of the other Categories could exist.[34]
[Footnote 34: Aristot. Categ. p. 2, a. 11, b. 6. [Greek: Ou)si/a ê(
kuriô/tata kai\ prô/tôs kai\ ma/lista legome/nê--mê\ ou)sô=n ou)=n
tô=n prô/tôn ou)siô=n, a)du/naton tô=n a)/llôn ti ei)=nai.]]
The Species is recognized by Aristotle as a Second _Ens_ or Essence,
in which these First Essences reside; it is less (has less completely
the character) of Essence than the First, to which it serves as
Predicate. The Genus is (strictly speaking) a Third Essence,[35] in
which both the First and the Second Essence are included; it is
farther removed than the Species from the First Essence, and has
therefore still less of the character of Essence. It stands as
predicate both to the First and to the Second Essence. While the
First Essence is more Essence than the Second, and the Second more
than the Third, all the varieties of the First Essence are in this
respect upon an equal footing with each other. This man, this horse,
that tree, &c., are all Essence, equally and alike.[36] The First
Essence admits of much variety, but does not admit graduation, or
degrees of more or less.
[Footnote 35: Aristotle here, in the Categoriæ, ranks Genus and
Species as being, both of them, [Greek: deu/terai ou)si/ai]. Yet
since he admits Genus to be farther removed from [Greek: prô/tê
ou)si/a] than Species is, he ought rather to have called Genus a
Third Essence. In the Metaphysica he recognizes a gradation or
ordination of [Greek: ou)si/a] into First, Second, and Third, founded
upon a totally different principle: the Concrete, which in the
Categoriæ ranks as [Greek: prô/tê ou)si/a], ranks as [Greek: tri/tê
ou)si/a] in the Metaphysica. See Metaphys. [Greek: Ê]. p. 1043. a.
18-28.]
[Footnote 36: Aristot. Categ. p. 2, b. 20; p. 3, b. 35.
Nothing else except Genera and Species can be called Second Essences,
or said to belong to the Category Essence; for they alone declare
what the First Essence is. If you are asked respecting Sokrates,
_What_ he _is_? and if you answer by stating the Species or the Genus
to which he belongs--that he is a man or an animal--your answer will
be appropriate to the question; and it will be more fully understood
if you state the Species than if you state the Genus. But if you
answer by stating what belongs to any of the other Categories (viz.,
that he is white, that he is running), your answer will be
inappropriate, and foreign to the question; it will not declare
_what_ Sokrates _is_.[37] Accordingly, none of these other Categories
can be called Essences. All of them rank as predicates both of First
and of Second Essence; just as Second Essences rank as predicates of
First Essences.[38]
[Footnote 37: Ibid. p. 2, b. 29-37. [Greek: ei)ko/tôs de\ meta\ ta\s
prô/tas ou)si/as mo/na tô=n a)/llôn ta\ ei)/dê kai\ ta\ ge/nê
deu/terai ou)si/ai le/gontai; mo/na ga\r dêloi= tê\n prô/tên ou)si/an
tô=n katêgoroume/nôn. to\n ga/r tina a)/nthrôpon e)a\n a)podidô=| tis
ti/ e)sti, to\ me\n ei)=dos ê)\ to\ ge/nos a)podidou\s _oi)kei/ôs
a)podô/sei_, kai\ gnôrimô/teron poiê/sei a)/nthrôpon ê)\ zô=|on
a)podidou/s; tô=n de\ a)/llôn o(/, ti a)\n a)podidô=| tis,
_a)llotri/ôs e)/stai a)podedôkô/s_, oi(=on leuko/n ê)\ tre/chei ê)\
o(tiou=n tô=n toiou/tôn a)podidou/s. Ô(/ste ei)ko/tôs tô=n a)/llôn
tau=ta mo/na ou)si/ai le/gontai.]]
[Footnote 38: Ibid. p. 3, a. 2.]
Essence or Substance is not _in_ a Subject; neither First nor Second
Essence. The First Essence is neither _in_ a Subject nor _predicated
of_ a Subject; the Second Essences are not _in_ the First, but are
_predicated of_ the First. Both the Second Essence, and the
definition of the word describing it, may be _predicated of_ the
First; that is, the predication is synonymous or univocal; whereas,
of that which is _in_ a Subject, the name may often be predicated,
but never the definition of the name. What is true of the Second
Essence, is true also of the Differentia; that it is not _in_ a
Subject, but that it may be _predicated_ univocally _of_ a Subject--
not only its name, but also the definition of its name.[39]
[Footnote 39: Ibid. p. 3, a. 7, 21, 34. [Greek: koino\n de\ kata\
pa/sês ou)si/as to\ mê\ e)n u(pokeime/nô| ei)=nai--ou)k i)/dion de\
tê=s tou=to ou)si/as, a)lla\ kai\ ê( diaphora\ tô=n mê\ e)n
u(pokeime/nô| e)sti/n--u(pa/rchei de\ tai=s ou)si/ais kai\ tai\s
diaphorai=s to\ pa/nta sunônu/môs a)p' au)tô=n le/gesthai.]]
All Essence or Substance seems to signify _Hoc Aliquid Unum Numero_.
The First Essence really does so signify, but the Second Essence does
not really so signify: it only seems to do so, because it is
enunciated by a substantive name, like the First.[40] It signifies
really _Tale Aliquid_, answering to the enquiry _Quale Quid_? for it
is said not merely of one thing numerically, but of many things each
numerically one. Nevertheless, a distinction must be drawn. The
Second Essence does not (like the Accident, such as white) signify
_Tale Aliquid_ simply and absolutely, or that and nothing more. It
signifies _Talem Aliquam Essentiam_; it declares what the Essence is,
or marks off the characteristic feature of various First Essences,
each _Unum Numero_. The Genus marks off a greater number of such than
the Species.[41]
[Footnote 40: Aristot. Categ. p. 3, b. 10-16: [Greek: Pa=sa de\
ou)si/a _dokei=_ to/de ti sêmai/nein. e)pi\ me\n ou)=n tô=n prô/tôn
ou)siô=n a)namphisbê/têton kai\ a)lêthe/s e)stin o(/ti to/de ti
sêmai/nei; a)/tomon ga\r kai\ e(\n a)rithmô=| to\ dêlou/meno/n
e)stin; e)pi\ de\ tô=n deute/rôn ou)siô=n _phai/netai me\n o(moi/ôs
tô=| schê/mati tê=s prosêgori/as to/de ti sêmai/nein_, o(/tan ei)/pê|
a)/nthrôpon ê)\ zô=|on, _ou) mê\n a)lêthe/s ge_, a)lla\ ma=llon
poio/n ti sêmai/nei.]]
[Footnote 41: Ibid. p. 3, b. 18-24.]
Again, Essences have no contraries.[42] But this is not peculiar to
Essences, for _Quanta_ also have no contraries; there is nothing
contrary to ten, or to that which is two cubits long. Nor is any one
of the varieties of First Essence more or less Essence than any other
variety. An individual man is as much Essence as an individual horse,
neither more nor less. Nor is he at one time more a man than he was
at another time; though he may become more or less white, more or
less handsome.[43]
[Footnote 42: Ibid. b. 24-30.]
[Footnote 43: Ibid. b. 34, seq.]
But that which is most peculiar to Essence, is, that while remaining
_Unum et Idem Numero_, it is capable by change in itself of receiving
alternately contrary Accidents. This is true of no other Category.
For example, this particular colour, being one and the same in
number, will never be now black, and then white; this particular
action, being one and the same in number, will not be at one time
virtuous, at another time vicious. The like is true respecting all
the other Categories. But one and the same man will be now white,
hot, virtuous; at another time, he will be black, cold, vicious. An
objector may say that this is true, not merely of Essence, but also
of Discourse and of Opinion; each of which (he will urge) remains
_Unum Numero_, but is nevertheless recipient of contrary attributes;
for the proposition or assertion, Sokrates is sitting, may now be
true and may presently become false. But this case is different,
because there is no change in the proposition itself, but in the
person or thing to which the proposition refers; while one and the
same man, by new affections in himself, is now healthy, then sick;
now hot, then cold.[44]
[Footnote 44: Aristot. Categ. p. 4, a. 10-b. 20.]
Here Aristotle concludes his first Category or Predicament--Essence
or Substance. He proceeds to the other nine, and ranks Quantity first
among them.[45] _Quantum_ is either Continual or Discrete; it
consists either of parts having position in reference to each other,
or of parts not having position in reference to each other. Discrete
_Quanta_ are Number and Speech; Continual _Quanta_ are Line, Surface,
Body, and besides these, Time and Place. The parts of Number have no
position in reference to each other; the parts of Line, Surface,
Body, have position in reference to each other. These are called
_Quanta_, primarily; other things are called _Quanta_ in a secondary
way, [Greek: kata\ sumbebêko/s].[46] Thus we say _much white_, when
the surface of white is large; we say, _the action is long_, because
much time and movement have been consumed in it. If we are asked,
_how long the action_ is? we must answer by specifying its length in
time--a year or a month.
[Footnote 45: Ibid. b. 21, seq.]
[Footnote 46: Ibid. p. 5, a. 38, seq.]
To _Quantum_ (as to Essence or Substance) there exists no
contrary.[47] There is nothing contrary to a length of three cubits
or an area of four square feet. Great, little, long, short, are more
properly terms of Relation than terms of Quantity; thus belonging to
another Category. Nor is _Quantum_ ever more or less _Quantum_; it
does not admit of degree. The _Quantum_ a yard is neither more nor
less _Quantum_ than that called a foot. That which is peculiar to
_Quanta_ is to be equal or unequal:[48] the relations of equality and
inequality are not properly affirmed of anything else except of
_Quanta_.
[Footnote 47: Ibid. b. 11, seq.]
[Footnote 48: Ibid. p. 6, a. 26-35.]
From the Category of Quantity, Aristotle proceeds next to that of
Relation;[49] which he discusses in immediate sequence after
Quantity, and before Quality, probably because in the course of his
exposition about Quantity, he had been obliged to intimate how
closely Quantity was implicated with Relation, and how essential it
was that the distinction between the two should be made clear.
[Footnote 49: Ibid. a. 36, seq.]
_Relata_ ([Greek: ta\ pro/s ti]--_ad Aliquid_) are things such, that
what they are, they are said to be _of other things_, or are said to
in some other manner _towards something else_ ([Greek: o(/sa au)ta\
a(/per e)sti\n **e(te/rôn ei)=nai le/getai, ê)\ o(pôstou=n a)/llôs
pro\s e(/teron]). Thus, that which is greater, is said to be greater
_than another_; that which is called double is called also double _of
another_. Habit, disposition, perception, cognition, position, &c.,
are all _Relata_. Habit, is habit _of something_; perception and
cognition, are always _of something_; position, is position _of
something_. The Category of Relation admits contrariety in some
cases, but not always; it also admits, in some cases, graduation, or
the more or less in degree; things are more like or less like to each
other.[50] All _Relata_ are so designated in virtue of their relation
to other _Correlata_; the master is master _of a servant_--the
servant is servant _of a master_. Sometimes the _Correlatum_ is
mentioned not in the genitive case but in some other case; thus
cognition is cognition _of_ the _cognitum_, but _cognitum_ is
_cognitum by_ cognition; perception is perception _of_ the
_perceptum_, but the _perceptum_ is _perceptum by_ perception.[51]
The correlation indeed will not manifestly appear, unless the
Correlate be designated by its appropriate term: thus, if the wing be
declared to be wing _of a bird_, there is no apparent correlation; we
ought to say, the wing is wing _of the winged_, and the winged is
winged _through_ or _by_ the wing; for the wing belongs to the bird,
not _quâ bird_, but _quâ winged_,[52] since there are many things
winged, which are not birds. Sometimes there is no current term
appropriate to the Correlate, so that we are under the necessity of
coining one for the occasion: we must say, to speak with strict
accuracy, [Greek: ê( kephalê/, tou= kephalôtou= kephalê/] not [Greek:
ê( kephalê/, tou= zô=|ou kephalê/]; [Greek: to\ pêda/lion, tou=
pêdaliôtou= pêda/lion], not [Greek: to\ pêda/lion, ploi/ou
pêda/lion].[53]
[Footnote 50: Aristot. Categ. p. 6, b. 20.]
[Footnote 51: Ibid. b. 28-37.]
[Footnote 52: Ibid. b. 36; p. 7, a. 5. [Greek: ou) mê\n a)ll'
e)ni/ote ou) do/xei a)ntistre/phein, e)a\n mê\ oi)kei/ôs pro\s o(\
le/getai a)podothê=|, a)lla\ diama/rtê| o( a)podidou/s, oi(=on to\
ptero\n e)a\n a)podothê=| o)/rnithos, ou)k a)ntistre/phei o)/rnis
pterou=; ou) ga\r oi)kei/ôs to\ prô=ton a)pode/dotai ptero\n
o)/rnithos; ou) ga\r ê(=| o)/rnis, tau/tê| to\ ptero\n au)tou=
le/getai, a)ll' ê(=| pterôto/n e)sti; pollô=n ga\r kai\ a)/llôn
ptera/ e)stin, a(\ ou)k ei)si\n o)/rnithes.]]
[Footnote 53: Ibid. p. 7, a. 6-25. [Greek: e)ni/ote de\ kai\
o)nomatopoiei=n I)/sôs a)nagkai=on, e)a\n mê\ kei/menon ê)=| o)/noma
pro\s o(\ oi)kei/ôs a)\n a)podothei/ê], &c.]
The _Relatum_ and its Correlate seem to be _simul naturâ_. If you
suppress either one of the pair, the other vanishes along with it.
Aristotle appears to think, however, that there are many cases in
which this is not true. He says that there can be no _cognoscens_
without a _cognoscibile_, nor any _percipiens_ without a
_percipibile_; but that there may be _cognoscibile_ without any
_cognoscens_, and _percipibile_ without any _percipiens_. He says
that [Greek: to\ ai)sthêto\n] exists [Greek: pro\ tou= ai)/sthêsin
ei)=nai].[54] Whether any Essence or Substance can be a _Relatum_ or
not, he is puzzled to say; he seems to think that the Second Essence
may be, but that the First Essence cannot be so. He concludes,
however, by admitting that the question is one of doubt and
difficulty.[55]
[Footnote 54: Ibid. b. 15; p. 8, a. 12. The Scholion of Simplikius on
this point (p. 65, a. 16, b. 18, Br.) is instructive. He gives his
own opinion, and that of some preceding commentators, adverse to
Aristotle. He says that [Greek: e)pistê/mê] and [Greek: to\
e)pistêto/n, ai)sthêsis] and [Greek: to\ ai)sthêto/n], are not
properly correlates. The actual correlates with the actual, the
potential with the potential. Now, in the above pairs, [Greek: to\
e)pistêto\n] and [Greek: to\ ai)sthêto\n] are potentials, while
[Greek: **e)pistê/mê] and [Greek: ai)/sthêsis] are actuals; therefore
it is correct to say that [Greek: to\ e)pistêto\n] and [Greek: to\
ai)sthêto\n] will not cease to exist if you take away [Greek:
e)pistê/mê] and [Greek: ai)/sthêsis]. But the real and proper
correlate to [Greek: to\ e)pistêto\n] would be [Greek: to\
e)pistêmoniko/n]: the proper correlate to [Greek: to\ ai)sthêto\n]
would be [Greek: to\ ai)sthêtiko\n]. And when we take these two
latter pairs, it is perfectly correct to say, [Greek: sunanairei=
tau=ta a)/llêla].
In the treatise, De Partibus Animalium, i. p. 641, b. 2, where
Aristotle makes [Greek: nou=s] correlate with [Greek: ta\ noêta/], we
must understand [Greek: nou=s] as equivalent to [Greek: to\
noêtiko/n], and as different from [Greek: ê( no/êsis].]
[Footnote 55: Aristot. Categ. p. 8, b. 22.]
Quality is that according to which Subjects are called Such and Such
([Greek: poioi/ tines]). It is, however, not a true genus, but a
vague word, of many distinct, though analogous, meanings including an
assemblage of particulars not bound together by any generic tie.[56]
The more familiar varieties are--1. Habits or endowments ([Greek:
e(/xeis]) of a durable character, such as, wise, just, virtuous; 2.
Conditions more or less transitory, such as, hot, cold, sick,
healthy, &c. ([Greek: diathe/seis]); 3. Natural powers or
incapacities, such as hard, soft, fit for boxing, fit for running,
&c. 4. Capacities of causing sensation, such as sweet of honey, hot
and cold of fire and ice. But a person who occasionally blushes with
shame, or occasionally becomes pale with fear, does not receive the
designation of _such or such_ from this fact; the occasional emotion
is a passion, not a quality.[57]
[Footnote 56: See the first note on p. 66. Aristot. Categ. p. 8, b.
26: [Greek: e)/sti de\ ê( poio/tês tô=n pleonachô=s legome/nôn], &c.
Compare Metaphys. [Greek: D]. p. 1020, a. 33, and the Scholion of
Alexander, p. 715, a. 5, Br.
The abstract term [Greek: Poio/tês] was a new coinage in Plato's
time; he introduces it with an apology (Theætet. p. 182 A.).]
[Footnote 57: Aristot. Categ. p. 9, b. 20-33.]
A fifth variety of Quality is figure or circumscribing form,
straightness or crookedness. But dense, rare, rough, smooth, are not
properly varieties of Quality; objects are not denominated _such and
such_ from these circumstances. They rather declare position of the
particles of an object in reference to each other, near or distant,
evenly or unevenly arranged.[58]
[Footnote 58: Ibid. p. 10, a. 11-24.]
Quality admits, in some cases but not in all, both contrariety and
graduation. Just is contrary to unjust, black to white; but there is
no contrary to red or pale. If one of two contraries belongs to
Quality, the other of the two will also belong to Quality. In regard
to graduation, we can hardly say that Quality in the abstract is
capable of more and less; but it is indisputable that different
objects have more or less of the same quality. One man is more just,
healthy, wise, than another; though justice or health in itself
cannot be called more or less. One thing cannot be more a triangle,
square, or circle than another; the square is not more a circle than
the oblong.[59]
[Footnote 59: Aristot. Categ. p. 10, b. 12; p. 11, a. 10, 11-24.]
What has just been said is not peculiar to Quality; but one
peculiarity there is requiring to be mentioned. Quality is the
foundation of Similarity and Dissimilarity. Objects are called _like_
or _unlike_ in reference to qualities.[60]
[Footnote 60: Ibid. p. 11, a. 15.]
In speaking about Quality, Aristotle has cited many illustrations
from _Relata_. Habits and dispositions, described by their generic
names, are _Relata_; in their specific varieties they are Qualities.
Thus cognition is always cognition _of something_, and is therefore a
_Relatum_; but _grammatiké_ (grammatical cognition) is not
_grammatiké of any thing_, and is therefore a Quality. It has been
already intimated[61] that the same variety may well belong to two
distinct Categories.
[Footnote 61: Ibid. a. 20-38. [Greek: e)/ti ei) tu/gchanoi to\ au)to\
pro/s ti kai\ poio\n o)/n, ou)de\n a)/topon e)n a)mphote/rois toi=s
ge/nesin au)to\ katarithmei=sthai.]]
After having thus dwelt at some length on each of the first four
Categories, Aristotle passes lightly over the remaining six.
Respecting _Agere_ and _Pati_, he observes that they admit (like
Quality) both of graduation and contrariety. Respecting _Jac[=e]re_
he tells us that the predicates included in it are derived from the
fact of positions, which positions he had before ranked among the
_Relata_. Respecting _Ubi_, _Quando_, and _Habere_, he considers them
all so manifest and intelligible, that he will say nothing about
them; he repeats the illustrations before given--_Habere_, as, to be
shod, or to be armed (to have shoes or arms); _Ubi_, as, in the
Lykeium; _Quando_, as, yesterday, last year.[62]