Aristotle
but is not so, for detached members or fragments, simply touching
each other without coalescing, are matter and substratum (_i.e._,
prepared for something ulterior); (2) Nature, which is really Hoc
Aliquid--a certain definite condition, into which generation takes
place ([Greek: ê( de\ phu/sis kai\ to/de ti, ei)s ê(/n, kai\ e(/xis
tis]--a. 12); (3) The Concrete of the two preceding--the individual
object called Sokrates or Kallias. In some cases there is no Hoc
Aliquid except in this Concrete or Compound; thus in artificial
objects or productions, such as a house or health, there is no Form
except the Art itself: the ideal house, pre-existing in the mind of
the builder, is generated and destroyed in a different sense from the
real house. It is in the case of natural objects, if in any case,
that there exists a Hoc Aliquid independent of the concrete
individual (a. 17).
Hence Plato was not wrong in saying that Forms were coextensive with
natural objects ([Greek: o(po/sa phu/sei]--p. 1070, a. 18), if there
are Forms distinct from these objects: such as fire, flesh, head,
which are all properly Matter. The Last Matter (or that which has
come most under the influence of Form) belongs to that which is in
the fullest sense Essentia (or the individual concrete named Sokrates
or Kallias--a. 20). The Moving Causes pre-exist, as real individual
beings or objects: the Formal Causes come into existence
simultaneously with the individual real compound. When the patient
becomes well, then health comes at the same time into existence: when
the brazen sphere comes, the sphericity of it comes at the same time
(a. 24). Whether any thing of the Form continues after the
dissolution of the individual compound, is a problem to be
investigated (a. 25). In some cases nothing hinders but what it may
continue; for example, the soul may be of such a nature: I do not
mean every soul--for every soul perhaps cannot continue--but the
[Greek: Nou=s] or rational soul (a. 27). Still it is plain that this
affords no support to the theory of self-existent separate Ideas; for
every individual man is begotten by another individual man. In like
manner also with respect to the arts; for the medical art affords the
Form or rational explanation of health (a. 30; _i.e._, health is
generated, not by the Idea of Health, but by the medical art, or by
the artist in whom that art is embodied).
Causes and principles, in one point of view, are different: different
subjects; but in another point of view, they are the same for all;
that is, if we speak generally and according to analogy (if we
confine ourselves to the most general terms, Form, Privation, Matter,
&c.). In respect to Essentia, Relatio, and the remainder of the
Categories, a difficulty arises to say whether the causes, elements,
and principles of all the Categories are the same. It would be
strange if they were all the same; because then Essentiæ, as well as
Relata, would proceed out of the same causes and elements. For, what
can these latter be? They cannot be extra-categorical; since there
exists no general class apart from or besides Essentia and the other
Categories (p. 1070, b. 1). Nor can any one Category be the element
of the others: for the element is _prius_ to that of which it is the
element. Nor again can Essentia be the element of Relata; nor is any
one of the nine Categories the element of Essentia. Again, how is it
possible that the elements of all the Categories can be the same? No
element can be the same as that compound of which it is an element:
neither B nor A can be the same as B A. If, therefore, there were
such elements, they must be extra-categorical; which is impossible.
Nor can the element in question (the supposed one and the same) be
any cogitable, such as Ens or Unum; for every individual Concrete is
both Ens and Unum and the element cannot be identical with the
compound put together out of it. Neither Essentia nor Relatio could
be said to exist, if Ens were the element out of which they are
composed; but these Categories exist necessarily: therefore there is
no one and the same element common to all the Categories (b. 9).
Yet we ought perhaps rather to repeat, what was observed before, that
in one sense, the elements of all are the same; in another sense,
different. Take for example the perceivable bodies. We find here hot
as the Form, cold as the Privation; as Matter, there is that which
is, primarily and _per se_, both hot and cold potentially: the hot
and the cold are both Essentiæ; likewise other things of which these
are the principles, _e.g._, flesh and bone, which of necessity are
different from the principles out of which they proceed (b. 15).
Flesh and bone have these elements and principles; other things have
other elements and principles. The same specific principles cannot be
assigned to all, but only principles analogous to these in each case,
as saying, in general terms, that there are three principles--Form,
Privation, Matter. Each of these is different in every different
genus; thus in colour, the principles are white, black, surface,
light, darkness, air, and out of these are generated day and night
(b. 21).
The three preceding causes are all intrinsic or immanent ([Greek:
e)nupa/rchonta]). But there are other causes also extrinsic, such as
the Movent. So that Principle and Element are not exactly identical;
for Principle as well as Cause includes all the four: [Greek: to\
kinou=n ê)\ i(sta/n] is a Principle, and is itself an Essentia (p.
1070, b. 25). Thus the analogous Elements are three, while the
Principles or Causes are four; but the four are specifically
different in each different case. Thus, health is Form; sickness is
Privation; body is Matter; the medical art is Movent. House is Form;
disorder of a certain sort is Privation; bricks are Matter; the
building art is Movent. We thus make out four Causes; yet, in a
certain sense, there will be only three (b. 32). For, in natural
products, a man is the Movent Cause of a man; in artificial products
([Greek: e)n toi=s a)po\ dianoi/as]) the Movent is Form or Privation.
In a certain sense, the medical art is health, and the building art
is the Form of a house, and a man begets a man. And farther, over and
above these special movent causes, there is the Primum Movens of all
(b. 35).
We distinguish what is separable from what is not separable. Now
Essentiæ, and they only, are separable; accordingly they are the
causes of every thing else, since without Essentiæ there cannot be
either affections or movements (p. 1071, a. 2). Such causes would be
soul and body, or reason, appetite, and body. Again, in another
sense, the principles of all things are generically the same, though
specifically different; such are Potentia and Actus. In some cases,
the same thing exists now potentially, at another time actually; thus
wine, though actually wine, is potentially vinegar; flesh is actually
flesh, potentially a man, Potentia and Actus will merge in the
above-mentioned causes--Form, Privation, Matter, Movent (a. 7). For
the Form (if it be separable), the Concrete (of Form and Matter), and
Privation (like darkness or sickness)--all these exist actually;
while Matter exists potentially, capable either of Form or Privation.
Things differ potentially and actually sometimes through difference
in the Matter, sometime through difference in the Form. Thus, the
cause of a man is, in the way of Matter, the elements fire and earth;
in the way of Form his own Form, and the same Form in another
individual--his father and besides these, the Sun with its oblique
motion; which last neither Matter, nor Form, nor Privation, nor the
like Form in another individual, but a Movent Cause ([Greek: a)lla\
kinou=nta]--a. 17).
We must remember, besides, that some things may be described in
general terms, others cannot be so described. The first principles of
all things are, speaking in general terms, Hoc Primum Actu and Aliud
Primum Potentiâ. These universals do not really exist (p. 1071, a.
19), for the principium of all individuals is some other individual.
Man indeed is the principium of the Universal Man but no Universal
Man exists (a. 21). Peleus is the principium of Achilles; your
father, of you; this B, of that B A; B, the universal, of B A the
universal. Next (after the Movent) come the Forms of Essences; but
the different genera thereof (as has been already stated), colours,
sounds, essences, quantities, &c., have different causes and
elements, though the same when described in general terms and by
analogy; also different individuals in the same species have
different causes and elements, not indeed different in species, but
different individually; that is, your Matter, your Movent, your Form,
are different from mine, though in general terms and definition they
are the same ([Greek: tô=| katho/lou de\ lo/gô| tau)ta/]--a. 29).
When therefore, we enquire, What are the principles or elements of
Essences, of Relata, of Qualities &c., and whether they are the same
or different? it is plain that, generically speaking (allowing for
difference of meaning--[Greek: pollachô=s], p. 1071, a. 31), they are
the same in each; but, speaking distributively and with reference to
particulars, they are different, and not the same. In the following
sense ([Greek: ô(di/]--a. 34), they are the same, namely, in the way
of Analogy ([Greek: tô=| a)na/logon]). They are always Matter, Form,
Privation, the Movent; hence the causes of Essences are causes of all
other things, since, when Essences disappear, all the rest disappears
along with them: besides all these, there is the Primum Movens
Actuale, common to all ([Greek: e)/ti to\ prô=ton e)ntelechei/a|]--a.
36). In the following sense, again, they are different--when we cease
to speak of genera, and pass from equivocal terms to particulars:
wherever there are different opposites (as white and black, health
and sickness) and wherever there are different Matters ([Greek: kai\
e)/ti ai( u(=lai]--p. 1071, b. 1; [Greek: u(=lai] in the plural,
rare).
We have thus declared, respecting the principles of Perceivable
Essences, what and how many they are; in what respect the same, and
in what respect they are different. Essences are threefold; two
Physical and one Immoveable. We shall proceed to speak of this last.
There exists, of necessity, some Eternal, Immoveable Essence. For
Essences are the first of all existent things; and, if they all be
perishable, every thing is perishable. But it is impossible that
Motion can ever have been generated or can ever be destroyed; for it
always existed: it is eternal. There is the like impossibility about
Time: for, if Time did not exist, there could be nothing _prius_ and
nothing _posterius_ (p. 1071, b. 8). Both Motion and Time are thus
eternal; both are also continuous; for either the two are identical,
or Time is an affection ([Greek: pa/thos]) of Motion. Now no mode of
Motion is continuous except local motion; and that in a circle (for
rectilinear motion cannot be continuous and eternal). There must be a
Movent or Producent Principle ([Greek: kinêtiko\n ê)\ poiêtiko/n]--b.
12); but, if the Movent existed potentially and not actually, there
could not be motion continuous and eternal; for that which has mere
power may never come into act. There will be no use therefore in such
eternal Essences as Plato assumes in his Ideas, unless there be along
with them some principle of potential change ([Greek: ei) mê/ tis
duname/nê e)ne/stai a)rchê\ metaba/llein]--b. 15). Nor indeed will
even that be sufficient (_i.e._, any principle of _merely potential_
change), nor any other Essence (such as Numbers--Schwegler) besides
or along with the Platonic Ideas; for, if this _principium_ shall not
come into Actuality ([Greek: ei) mê\ e)nergê/sei]--b. 17), the motion