Substance, again, does not appear to admit of variation of degree. I do
not mean by this that one substance cannot be more or less truly
substance than another, for it has already been stated that this is
the case; but that no single substance admits of varying degrees within
itself. For instance, one particular substance, 'man', cannot be more
or less man either than himself at some other time or than some other
man. One man cannot be more man than another, as that which is white
may be more or less white than some other white object, or as that
which is beautiful may be more or less beautiful than some other
beautiful object. The same quality, moreover, is said to subsist in a
thing in varying degrees at different times. A body, being white, is
said to be whiter at one time than it was before, or, being warm, is
said to be warmer or less warm than at some other time. But substance
is not said to be more or less that which it is: a man is not more
truly a man at one time than he was before, nor is anything, if it is
substance, more or less what it is. Substance, then, does not admit of
variation of degree.
The most distinctive mark of substance appears to be that, while
remaining numerically one and the same, it is capable of admitting
contrary qualities. From among things other than substance, we should
find ourselves unable to bring forward any which possessed this mark.
Thus, one and the same colour cannot be white and black. Nor can the
same one action be good and bad: this law holds good with everything
that is not substance. But one and the selfsame substance, while
retaining its identity, is yet capable of admitting contrary qualities.
The same individual person is at one time white, at another black, at
one time warm, at another cold, at one time good, at another bad. This
capacity is found nowhere else, though it might be maintained that a
statement or opinion was an exception to the rule. The same statement,
it is agreed, can be both true and false. For if the statement 'he is
sitting' is true, yet, when the person in question has risen, the same
statement will be false. The same applies to opinions. For if any one
thinks truly that a person is sitting, yet, when that person has risen,
this same opinion, if still held, will be false. Yet although this
exception may be allowed, there is, nevertheless, a difference in the
manner in which the thing takes place. It is by themselves changing
that substances admit contrary qualities. It is thus that that which
was hot becomes cold, for it has entered into a different state.
Similarly that which was white becomes black, and that which was bad
good, by a process of change; and in the same way in all other cases it
is by changing that substances are capable of admitting contrary
qualities. But statements and opinions themselves remain unaltered in
all respects: it is by the alteration in the facts of the case that the
contrary quality comes to be theirs. The statement 'he is sitting'