Aristotle
definite nature or Form, such as plant or animal; That _by which_, or
nature characterized according to the Form, being the same Form as
the thing generated but in another individual; for a man begets a man
(a. 24).
The other generations are called Constructions ([Greek: poiê/seis]),
which are either from Art, or from Power, or from Intelligence. It is
with these as with natural generations: some of them occur both by
spontaneity and by chance ([Greek: kai\ a)po\ tau)toma/tou kai\ a)po\
tu/chês]--p. 1032, a. 29; the principle of these last is apparently
[Greek: _du/namis_], the second of the three _principia_ announced
just before (?)); both in the one and in the other, some products
arise without seed as well as with seed, which we shall presently
advert to.
The generations from Art are those of which the Form is in the mind.
By Form I mean the [Greek: t.ê.e.] of each thing and its First
Essence ([Greek: tê\n prô/tên ou)si/an], p. 1032, b. 1). For, in a
certain way, the Form even of contraries is the same; since the
essence of privation is the opposite essence: for example, health is
the essence of disease; for disease is declared or described as
absence of health, and health is the rational notion existing in the
mind and in science. Now a healthy subject is generated by such an
antecedent train of thought as follows ([Greek: gi/gnetai dê\ to\
u(gie\s noê/santos ou(/tôs]--b. 6):--Since health is so and so, there
is necessity, if the subject is to attain health, that such and such
things should occur, _e.g._, an even temperature of the body, for
which latter purpose heat must be produced; and so on farther, until
the thought rests upon something which is in the physician's power to
construct. The motion proceeding from this last thought is called
Construction (b. 10), tending as it does towards health. So that, in
a certain point of view, health may be said to be generated out of
health, and a house out of a house; for the medical art is the form
of health and the building art the form of the house: I mean the
[Greek: t.ê.e.], or the Essence without Matter, thereof (b. 14). Of
the generations and motions here enumerated, one is called Rational
Apprehension, viz., that one which takes its departure from the
Principle and the Form; the other, Construction, viz., that which
takes its departure from the conclusion of the process of rational
apprehension ([Greek: a)po\ tou= teleutai/ou tê=s noê/seôs]--b. 17).
The like may be said about each of the intermediate steps: I mean, if
the patient is to be restored to health, he must be brought to an
even temperature. But the being brought to an even temperature, what
is it? It is so and so; it will be a consequence of his being warmed.
And this last again--what is it? So and so; which already exists
potentially, since it depends upon the physician to produce it, the
means being at his command ([Greek: tou=to d' ê)/dê e)p' au)tô=|]--b.
21).
We see thus that the Constructive Agency ([Greek: to\ poiou=n]) and
the point from which the motion towards producing health takes its
origin, is, when the process is one of Art, the Form present in the
mind; and, when the process is one of Spontaneity, it proceeds from
that which would be the first proceeding of the artist, if Art had
been concerned. In the medical art, _e.g._, the artist begins by
imparting warmth. He does this by rubbing. But this warmth might
perhaps arise in the body without any such rubbing or interference by
the artist. The warmth is the prime agent, in the case of spontaneous
production. The warmth is either a part of health, or a condition to
the existence of health, as bricks are to that of a house (p. 1032,
b. 30).
Nothing can be generated, if nothing pre-existed--as has been already
said before. Some part of what is generated must exist before: Matter
pre-exists, as in-dwelling and not generated ([Greek: ê( ga\r u(/lê
me/ros; e)nupa/rchei ga\r kai\ gi/gnetai au(/tê]--p. 1033, a. 1. I do
not understand these last words: it ought surely to be--[Greek:
e)nupa/rchei ga\r kai\ _ou)_ gi/gnetai au(/tê]. Bonitz's explanation
suits these last words better than it suits the words in the actual
text.).
But something of the Form or rational explanation ([Greek: tô=n e)n
tô=| lo/gô|]) must also pre-exist. In regard to a brazen circle, if
we are asked, _Quid est_? we answer in two ways: We say of the
Matter--It is brass; We say of the Form--It is such and such a
figure. And this is the genus in which it is first placed (p. 1033,
a. 4).
The brazen circle has Matter in its rational explanation. But that
which is generated, is called not by the name of the Matter out of
which it is generated, but by a derivative name formed therefrom; not
[Greek: e)kei=no], but [Greek: e)kei/ninon]. A statue is called not
[Greek: li/thos], but [Greek: li/thinos]. But, when a man is made
healthy, he is not said to be the Matter out of which the health is
generated; because that which we call the Matter is generated out of
Privation along with the subject. Thus, both the man becomes healthy,
and the patient becomes healthy; but the generation is more properly
said to come out of Privation: we say, _Sanus ex ægroto generatur_,
rather than, _Sanus ex homine generatur_ (p. 1033, a. 12). In cases
where the Privation is unmarked and unnamed, as, in the case of
brass, privation of the spherical, or any other, figure, and, in the
case of a house, the privation of bricks or wood, the work is said to
be generated out of them like a healthy man out of a sick man (a.
14). Nevertheless the work is not called by the same name as the
material out of which it is made, but by a paronym thereof; not
[Greek: xu/lon] but [Greek: xu/linon] (a. 18). In strict propriety,
indeed, we can hardly say that the statue is made out of brass, nor
the house out of wood; for the _materia ex quâ_ ought to be something
which undergoes change, not something which remains unchanged (a.
21).
It was remarked that in Generation there are three things or aspects
to be distinguished--
1. [Greek: To\ u(ph' ou(=, o(/then ê( a)rchê\ tê=s gene/seôs].
2. [Greek: To\ e)x ou(=]--rather [Greek: u(/lê] than [Greek:
ste/rêsis].
3. [Greek: Ti/ gi/gnetai].
Having already touched upon the two first, I now proceed to the
third. What is it that is generated? Neither the Matter, nor the
Form, but the embodiment or combination of the two. An artisan does
not construct either the brass or the sphere, but the brazen sphere.
If he be said to construct the sphere, it is only by accident
([Greek: kata\ sumbebêko/s]), since the sphere in this particular
case happens to be of brass. Out of the entire subject-matter, he
constructs a distinct individual Something (p. 1033, a. 31). To make
the brass round, is not to make the round, or to make the sphere, but
to make a something different: that is the Form (of sphericity)
embodied in another thing (a. 32). For, if the artisan made the round
or the sphere, he must make them out of something different,
pre-existing as a subject: _e.g._, he makes a brazen sphere, and in
this sense--that he makes out of that Matter, which is brass, this
different something, which is a sphere. If he made the sphere
itself--the Form of sphere--he must make it out of some pre-existent
subject; and you would thus carry back _ad infinitum_ the different
acts of generation and different pre-existent subjects (b. 4).
It is, therefore, clear that [Greek: to\ ei)=dos], or by whatever
name the shape of the percipiend is to be called, is not generated,
nor is generation thereof possible; nor is there any [Greek: t.ê.e.]
thereof; that is, of the Form abstractedly: for it is this very
[Greek: t.ê.e.] which is generated or becomes embodied in something
else, either by nature, or by art, or by spontaneous power (p. 1033,
b. 8). The artisan makes a brazen sphere to exist, for he makes it
out of brass (Matter), and the sphere (Form): he makes or embodies
the Form into this Matter, and that is a brazen sphere (b. 11). If
there be any generation of the sphere _per se_ ([Greek: tou=
sphaira=| ei)=nai]), it must be Something out of Something; for the
Generatum must always be resolvable into a certain Matter and a
certain Form. Let the brazen sphere be a figure in which all points
of the circumference are equidistant from the centre; here are three
things to be considered: (1) That in which what is constructed
resides; (2) That which does so reside; (3) The entire Something
generated or constructed--the brazen sphere. We see thus plainly that
what is called the Form or Essence itself is not generated, but the
combination called _according to the Form_ is generated; moreover
that in every Generatum there is Matter, so that the Generatum is in
each case this or that (b. 19).
Can it be true, then, that there exists any sphere or house beyond
those which we see or touch (_i.e._, any Form or Idea of a sphere,
such as Plato advocates)? If there existed any such, it could never
have become or been generated into Hoc Aliquid. It signifies only
_tale_. It is neither This nor That nor any thing defined: but it (or
rather the Constructive Agency) makes or generates _ex hoc tale_; and
when this last has been generated, it is Tale Hoc (p. 1033, b. 22),
and the entire compound is Kallias, or Sokrates, or _this_ brazen
sphere, while man, animal, &c., are analogous to brazen sphere
generally. Even if there exist Platonic Forms by themselves, they
could be of no use towards generation or the production of Essences.
Frequently it is obvious that the Generans is like the Generatum,
only a different individual. There is no occasion to assume the
Platonic Form as an Exemplar; for the generating individual is quite
sufficient of itself to be the cause of the Form in a new mass of
Matter. The entire result is the given Form in these particular bones
and flesh--called Kallias or Sokrates: each is different so far as
Matter, but the same in the Form; for the Form is indivisible (p.
1034, a. 7).
But how does it happen that there are some things which are generated
sometimes by art, sometimes spontaneously (_e.g._, health), while in
other things (_e.g._, a house) spontaneous production never takes
place? The reason is, that, in the first class of cases, the Matter
which governs the work of generation by the artist, and in which
itself a part of the finished product resides, is of a nature to be
moved or modified by itself, while, in the second, this is not the
fact; and to be moved, besides, in a certain manner and direction;
for there are many things which are movable by themselves, but not in
such manner and direction as the case which we are supposing
requires. For example, stones are incapable of being moved in certain
directions except by some other force, but they are capable of being
moved by themselves in another direction; the like with fire. It is
upon this that the distinction turns between some results which
cannot be realized without an artist, and others which may perhaps be
so realized (a. 17).
It is plain from what has been said that, in a certain sense,
everything is generated from something of the same name, as natural
objects are (_e.g._, a man); or from something in part bearing the
same name (as a house out of the ideal form of a house), or from
something which possesses that which in part bears the same name; for
the first cause of the generation is itself part of the thing
generated. The heat in the motion generates heat in the body; and
this is either health, or a part of health, or the antecedent of one
or other of these; hence it is said to produce or generate health,
because it produces that of which health is concomitant and
consequent (p. 1034, a. 30; see Bonitz's correction in his Note).
Essence is in these cases the beginning or principle of all