[176] The Stoics attack the Aristotelian categories for being too
numerous, and endeavour to show that they do not include every kind of
expression (as if, rejoined Simplicius, Categ. 5, α, this were the
point at all). Compare Simpl. Categ. 5, α; 15, δ; 16, δ, who quotes
these as objections raised by Athenodorus and Cornutus, the former of
whom lived in the time of Augustus, the latter in the reign of Nero.
Observations of these writers on some of the Aristotelian categories
are given, Ibid. 47, ζ, 91, α.
[177] That this was intended by Aristotle to be the position of the
categories appears by the way in which he introduced them; and also by
his observations (Phys. v. 2) on the various kinds of motion—which are
based entirely on the view that the categories are coordinate.
[178] It will thus be understood how the ancients could at one time
speak of ὂν, at another of τί, as being the highest conception of the
Stoics. The former is found in Diog. 61: γενικώτατον δέ ἐστιν ὃ γένος
ὂν γένος οὐκ ἔχει, οἷον τὸ ὄν. Sen. Ep. 58, 8: Nunc autem genus illud
primum quærimus, ex quo ceteræ species suspensæ sunt, a quo nascitur
omnis divisio, quo universa comprehensa sunt; after noticing the
distinction between what is material and what is immaterial, he
proceeds: quid ergo erit, ex quo hæc deducantur? illud ... quod est [τὸ
ὂν] ... quod est aut corporale est aut incorporale. Hoc ergo genus est
primum et antiquissimum et, ut ita dicam, generale [τὸ γενικώτατον]. It
is, however, more usual to find τί. Thus Plotin. Enn. vi. 1, 25: κοινὸν
τὶ καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων ἓν γένος λαμβάνουσι. Alex. Aphrod. Top. 155; Schol.
278, b, 20: οὕτω δεικνύοις ἂν ὅτι μὴ καλῶς τὸ τὶ οἱ ἀπὸ στοᾶς γένος τοῦ
ὄντος (τὶ as the genus, of which ὂν is a species) τίθενται· εἰ γὰρ τὶ,
δῆλον ὅτι καὶ ὂν ... ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνοι νομοθετήσαντες αὐτοῖς τὸ ὂν κατὰ
σωμάτων μόνων λέγεσθαι διαφεύγοιεν ἂν τὸ ἠπορημένον· διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ
τὶ γενικώτερον αὐτοῦ φασιν εἶναι κατηγορούμενον οὐ κατὰ σωμάτων μόνον
ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀσωμάτων. Schol. in Arist. 34, b, 11. Sext. Pyrrh. ii. 86: τὸ
τὶ, ὅπερ φασὶν εἶναι πάντων γενικώτατον. Math. x. 234: The Stoics
affirm τῶν τινῶν τὰ μὲν εἶναι σώματα τὰ δὲ ἀσώματα. Sen. l.c. 13:
Stoici volunt superponere huic etiamnunc aliud genus magis principale
... primum genus Stoicis quibusdam videtur quid, for in rerum,
inquiunt, natura quædam sunt, quædam non sunt: examples of the latter
are centaurs, giants, and similar notions of unreal things. Ritter,
iii. 566, remarks, with justice, that the older teaching must have
placed the conception of Being at the head; otherwise the objection
could not have been raised, that what has not being is thus made an
object of thought. Probably the change was made by Chrysippus, although
it is not definitely proved by Stob. Ecl. i. 390. Petersen confuses the
two views, in thinking (p. 146) that the Stoics divided Something into
Being and Not Being, and subdivided Being again into what is material
and what is not material. In other respects, too, he confounds the
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