Categories (Philosophy); Logic -- Early works to 1800; Philosophy, Ancient
remains unaltered, but it is at one time true, at another false,
according to circumstances. What has been said of statements applies
also to opinions. Thus, in respect of the manner in which the thing
takes place, it is the peculiar mark of substance that it should be
capable of admitting contrary qualities; for it is by itself changing
that it does so.
If, then, a man should make this exception and contend that statements
and opinions are capable of admitting contrary qualities, his
contention is unsound. For statements and opinions are said to have
this capacity, not because they themselves undergo modification, but
because this modification occurs in the case of something else. The
truth or falsity of a statement depends on facts, and not on any power
on the part of the statement itself of admitting contrary qualities. In
short, there is nothing which can alter the nature of statements and
opinions. As, then, no change takes place in themselves, these cannot
be said to be capable of admitting contrary qualities.
But it is by reason of the modification which takes place within the
substance itself that a substance is said to be capable of admitting
contrary qualities; for a substance admits within itself either disease
or health, whiteness or blackness. It is in this sense that it is said
to be capable of admitting contrary qualities.
To sum up, it is a distinctive mark of substance, that, while remaining
numerically one and the same, it is capable of admitting contrary
qualities, the modification taking place through a change in the
substance itself.
Let these remarks suffice on the subject of substance.
Part 6
Quantity is either discrete or continuous. Moreover, some quantities
are such that each part of the whole has a relative position to the
other parts: others have within them no such relation of part to part.
Instances of discrete quantities are number and speech; of continuous,
lines, surfaces, solids, and, besides these, time and place.
In the case of the parts of a number, there is no common boundary at
which they join. For example: two fives make ten, but the two fives
have no common boundary, but are separate; the parts three and seven
also do not join at any boundary. Nor, to generalize, would it ever be
possible in the case of number that there should be a common boundary
among the parts; they are always separate. Number, therefore, is a
discrete quantity.
The same is true of speech. That speech is a quantity is evident: for
it is measured in long and short syllables. I mean here that speech
which is vocal. Moreover, it is a discrete quantity for its parts have
no common boundary. There is no common boundary at which the syllables
join, but each is separate and distinct from the rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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