Aristotle
defect; differences of figure, smoothness, roughness, &c., belong to
the genus straight and curve; in other cases, to be, or not to be,
will depend upon mixture, as the genus (p. 1043, a. 1).
If then the Essence is the cause why each thing is what it is, we
must seek in these differences the cause why each thing is what it is
(p. 1043, a. 3). None of these differences indeed is itself
Essence,--not even when it is embodied or combined with Matter; but
it is in each the analogue of Essence, and must be employed in
defining, just as in real and true Essence we define by predicating
of Matter the Actuality or Formality ([Greek: ô(s e)n tai=s ou)si/ais
to\ tê=s u(/lês katêgorou/menon au)tê\ ê( e)ne/rgeia]--a. 6). Thus,
if we define a threshold, we say--a piece of wood or stone lying in
this particular way; if we define ice, we say--water frozen or
solidified in this particular way, &c. The Form or Actuality of one
Matter is different from that of another; so also is the rational
explanation or Definition; in some cases it is composition, in others
mixture, &c., and so forth. If any one defines a house by saying that
it is stone or brick, he indicates only the potential house, for these
are the Matter (a. 15); if he defines it--a vessel protecting bodies
or property, he then assigns the Actuality ([Greek: e)ne/rgeian]); if
he includes both of the above in his definition, he then gives the
third Essence completed out of the two together ([Greek: tê\n tri/tên
kai\ tê\n e)k tou/tôn ou)si/an]--a. 18). To define from the
differences, is to define from the side of the Actuality or Form; to
define from the included elements ([Greek: e)k tô=n e)nuparcho/ntôn])
is to define from the side of the Matter (a. 20).
We see herefrom what perceivable Essence is, and how it is: partly,
of the nature of Matter; partly, of Form and Actuality or Energy:
again, the third or Concrete, out of both combined (p. 1043, a. 28).
Sometimes, it is not clear whether the name signifies this third
Concrete, or the Form and Energy. Thus, when you say a house, do you
mean a protective receptacle built of bricks? or do you mean simply a
protective receptacle--the Form simply, without specifying the
Matter? When you say a line, do you mean a dyad in length--Form in
Matter? or simply a dyad--Form alone? When you talk of an animal, do
you mean soul in body? or simply soul, which is the Essence and
Actuality of a certain body? The word animal may be applied to both,
not indeed univocally, as implying generic resemblance, but
(quasi-univocally, or semi-univocally) by analogical relationship to
a common term ([Greek: ou)ch ô(s e(ni\ lo/gô| lego/menon, a)ll' ô(s
pro\s e(\n]--a. 36). This distinction however, though important in
some respects, is unimportant so far as regards the investigation
about perceivable Essence; for the [Greek: t.ê.e.] belongs to the
Form and the Actuality (a. 38). Soul, and the being soul, are
identical; but man, and the being man, are not identical; unless the
soul be called man. Thus this identity exists in some cases, but not
in others (b. 4). A syllable is not composed merely of letters and
synthesis, nor is a house simply of bricks and synthesis; for the
synthesis or the mixture does not proceed out of the elements which
are put together or mixed (b. 8). The like is true in other cases;
_e.g._, if the threshold is a threshold by position, the position
does not proceed out of the threshold, but rather the threshold out
of the position. Nor again is man simply animal and biped. If these
two are the Matter, there must be something apart from and beyond
them, something not itself an element nor proceeding out of an
element--the Essence; which is indicated by abstracting from the
Matter (b. 13). This, as being the Cause of Existence and of Essence
([Greek: ai)/tion tou= ei)=nai kai\ tê=s ou)si/as]--b. 14) is what is
meant when Essence is spoken of.
This Essence or Form must be eternal; or at least, if destructible,
it has never been destroyed; if generable, it has never been
generated. For we have shown already that no one either constructs or
generates Form: the Hoc Aliquid is constructed; the product of Form
and Matter is generated (p. 1043, b. 18). As yet it has not been made
clear whether the Essences of destructible things are separable or
not: in some cases at least, they certainly are not--in those cases,
namely, where there can exist nothing beyond the particular things,
as a house or an implement (b. 21). Perhaps, indeed, these are not
truly Essences--neither these particular things nor any other things
which have come together not by natural process; for we might
indicate Nature alone as the Essence in destructible things ([Greek:
tê\n ga\r phu/sin mo/nên a)/n tis thei/ê tê\n e)n toi=s phthartoi=s
ou)si/an])--b. 23. Aristotle seems to say in what precedes, that
there is no [Greek: ge/nesis] or [Greek: phthora/] of [Greek:
ou)si/a]; see Z. p. 1033, b. 17. But how is this to be reconciled
with K. p. 1060, b. 18: [Greek: ou)si/as me\n ga\r pa/sês
ge/nesi/s e)stin, stigmê=s d' ou)k e)/stin]? See Schwegler's Comm.
explaining [Greek: gigno/menon] and [Greek: phtheiro/menon], Pt. II.
pp. 82, 83).
Hence we see that the difficulty started by Antisthenes and others
equally unschooled ([Greek: a)pai/deutoi]) is not without pertinence.
They say that, as a definition is a sentence of many words,
predicating something of something, so you cannot define _Quid est_:
you can only define and inform persons _Quale Quid est_: you can only
tell people what the definiend is like, not what it is in itself: you
can tell them that silver is like tin, but you cannot tell what
silver is. Upon this theory, definition may be given of Compound
Essence, whether perceivable or cogitable; but not of the _primordia_
of which the compound consists. The definition must predicate a
something, which is of the nature of Form, of another something,
which is of the nature of Matter (p. 1043, b. 31).
If Essences are (as the Platonists say) in a certain sense Numbers,
they are so in _this_ sense; not (as these philosophers affirm) in
the character of assemblages of Monads. For the definition is a sort
of number, divisible into indivisible units; and the number is so
likewise. If you add any thing to, or deduct any thing from, a number
(let the thing added or deducted be never so small), it will be no
longer the same number; in like manner, neither the definition nor
the [Greek: t.ê.e.], will be the same, if any thing be added or
subtracted (p. 1044, a. 1). Each number must have something which
makes its component units coalesce into one number, though the
Platonic philosophers cannot tell what that something is; either the
units are a mere (uncemented) heap, or else you must say what is that
something which makes them _one_ out of many (a. 5). The definition
also is one; yet these philosophers cannot explain what makes it one.
The units of the number and that of the definition, is to be
explained in the same way, and that of the Essence also; not as a
monad or a point, but in each case like an Entelechy and a peculiar
nature ([Greek: ou)ch, ô(s le/gousi/ tines, oi(=on mona/s tis ou)=sa
ê)\ stigmê/, a)ll' e)ntele/cheia kai\ phu/sis tis e(ka/stê]--a. 9). A
given number admits of no degrees, more or less: neither does a given
Essence, unless it be taken embodied in Matter (a. 10).
Respecting the Material Essence ([Greek: peri\ de\ tê=s u(likê=s
ou)si/as]--p. 1044, a. 15), we must not forget that, if there be one
and the same First Matter common as a principle to all Generata or
Fientia, there is nevertheless a certain Matter special or peculiar
(proximate) to each ([Greek: o(/môs e)/sti tis oi)kei/a
e(ka/stou]--a. 18; [Greek: oi)kei/a kai\ prosechê/s]--Alexander).
Thus the Materia Prima of phlegm is, sweet or fat things; that of bile
is, bitter things and such like. Perhaps these two come both from the
same Matter; and there are several different Matters of the same
product, in cases where one Matter proceeds from another. Thus phlegm
proceeds from fat and sweet, if fat proceeds from sweet; and even
from bile, if bile be analysed into its First Matter from whence
phlegm may proceed by a different road (a. 23). One thing may proceed
from another in two different ways: either D may proceed from C,
because C is its immediate Matter, already preformed up to a certain
point, and thus on the way to a perfectly formed state; or D may
proceed from C, after the destruction of C and the resolution of C
into its Materia Prima ([Greek: dichô=s ga\r to/d' e)k tou=de, ê)\
o(/ti pro\ o(dou= e)/stai ê)\ o(/ti a)naluthe/ntos ei)s tê\n
a)rchê/n]--a. 24). From one and the same Matter different products
may proceed, if the moving cause be different: from the same wood
there may proceed a box or a bed. What product shall emerge does not,
however, depend only upon the Moving Cause, but often upon the Matter
also; thus a saw cannot be made out of wool or wood. If the same
product can proceed out of different Matter, this is evidently
because the Art or Moving Cause is the same: if this last be
different, and the Matter different also, the product will of course
be different (p. 1044, a. 32).
When a man asks us, What is the Cause? we ought to reply, since the
word has many senses, by specifying all the causes which can have a
bearing on the case (p. 1044, a. 34). Thus, What is the Cause of man,
as Matter? Perhaps the katamenia. What, as Movent? Perhaps the seed.
What, as Form? The [Greek: t.ê.e.] What, as [Greek: ou(= e(/neka]?
The End. These two last are perhaps both the same (a. 36). Moreover
we ought to make answer by specifying the proximate causes (not the
remote and ultimate). Thus, What is the Matter of man? We must answer
by specifying the proximate matter; not fire and earth, the ultimate
and elemental (b. 2).
This is the only right way of proceeding in regard to Essences
natural and generable; since the Causes are many, and are what we
seek to know. But the case is different in regard to Essences
natural, yet eternal. Some of these last perhaps have no Matter at
all; or at least a different Matter, having no attribute except local
movability (b. 8. Alexander says in explanation: [Greek: le/gei de\
tê\n xu/mpasan tô=n o)ktô\ sphairô=n e(na/da--u(/lên ou) gennêtê\n
kai\ phthartê\n a)lla\ mo/non kata\ to/pon kinêtê/n]--p. 527, 20-25,
Bon.).
Again, in regard to circumstances which occur by Nature, but not in
the way of Essence, there is no Matter at all: the subject itself is
the Essence. Thus in regard to an eclipse: What is its Cause? What is
its Matter? There is no Matter, except the moon which is affected in
a certain way. What is the Cause, as Movent--here light-destroying?
The earth. Perhaps there is no [Greek: ou(= e(/neka] in the case. But
the Cause in the way of Form is the rational explanation or
definition; and this must include a specification of the Movent
Cause, otherwise it will be obscure. Thus, the eclipse is, privation
of light; and, when you add--by the earth intervening, you then
specify the Movent, and make your definition satisfactory (b. 15).
In defining sleep we ought to say what part of the system is first
affected thereby; but this is not clear. Shall we indicate only the
animal (as substratum)? But this is not enough. We shall be asked,
What part of the animal? Which part first? The heart, or what other
part? Next, by what Cause? Lastly, how is the heart affected, apart
from the rest of the system? To say--Sleep is a certain sort of
immobility, will not be a sufficient definition. We must specify from
what primary affection such immobility arises (p. 1044, b. 20).
Since some things exist, and do not exist, without generation or
destruction (as Forms, and Points, if there be such things as