Aristotle
shod, or to be armed (to have shoes or arms); _Ubi_, as, in the
Lykeium; _Quando_, as, yesterday, last year.[62]
[Footnote 62: Ibid. b. 8-15. [Greek: dia\ to\ prophanê= ei)=nai,
ou)de\n u(pe\r au)tô=n a)/llo le/getai ê)\ o(/sa e)n a)rchê=|
e)rre/thê], &c.]
. . . . . .
No part of the Aristotelian doctrine has become more incorporated
with logical tradition, or elicited a greater amount of comment and
discussion,[63] than these Ten Categories or Predicaments. I have
endeavoured to give the exposition as near as may be in the words and
with the illustrations of Aristotle; because in many of the comments
new points of view are introduced, sometimes more just than those of
Aristotle, but not present to his mind. Modern logicians join the
Categories side by side with the five Predicables, which are
explained in the Eisagoge of Porphyry, more than five centuries after
Aristotle's death. As expositors of Logic they are right in doing
this; but my purpose is to illustrate rather the views of Aristotle.
The mind of Aristotle was not altogether exempt from that
fascination[64] which particular numbers exercised upon the
Pythagoreans and after them upon Plato. To the number Ten the
Pythagoreans ascribed peculiar virtue and perfection. The fundamental
Contraries, which they laid down as the Principles of the Universe,
were ten in number.[65] After them, also, Plato carried his ideal
numbers as far as the Dekad, but no farther. That Aristotle
considered Ten to be the suitable number for a complete list of
general heads--that he was satisfied with making up the list of ten,
and looked for nothing beyond--may be inferred from the different
manner in which he deals with the different items. At least, such was
his point of view when he composed this treatise. Though he
recognizes all the ten Categories as co-ordinate in so far that
(except _Quale_) each is a distinct Genus, not reducible under either
of the others, yet he devotes all his attention to the first four,
and gives explanations (copious for him) in regard to these. About
the fifth and sixth (_Agere_ and _Pati_)[66] he says a little, though
much less than we should expect, considering their extent and
importance. About the last four, next to nothing appears. There are
even passages in his writings where he seems to drop all mention of
the two last (_Jacere_ and _Habere_), and to recognize no more than
eight Predicaments. In the treatise Categoriæ where his attention is
fastened on Terms and their signification, and on the appropriate way
of combining these terms into propositions, he recites the ten
_seriatim_; but in other treatises, where his remarks bear more upon
the matter and less upon the terms by which it is signified, he
thinks himself warranted in leaving out the two or three whose
applications are most confined to special subjects. If he had thought
fit to carry the total number of Predicaments to twelve or fifteen
instead of ten,[67] he would probably have had little difficulty in
finding some other general heads not less entitled to admission than
_Jacere_ and _Habere_; the rather, as he himself allows, even in
regard to the principal Categories, that particulars comprised under
one of them may also be comprised under another, and that there is no
necessity for supposing each particular to be restricted to one
Category exclusively.
[Footnote 63: About the prodigious number of these comments, see the
Scholion of Dexippus, p. 39, a. 34, Br.; p. 5, ed. Spengel.]
[Footnote 64: See Simpl. in Categ. Schol. p. 78, b. 14, Br.; also the
two first chapters of the Aristotelian treatise De Coelo; compare
also, about the perfection of the [Greek: tri/tê su/stasis], De
Partibus Animalium, ii. p. 646, b. 9; De Generat. Animal. iii. p.
760, a. 34.]
[Footnote 65: Aristot. Metaph. A. p. 986, a. 8. There existed, in the
time of the later Peripatetics, a treatise in the Doric dialect by
Archytas--[Greek: Peri\ tou= Panto/s]--discriminating Ten Categories,
and apparently the same ten Categories as Aristotle. By several
Aristotelian critics this treatise was believed to have been composed
by Archytas the Tarentine, eminent both as a Pythagorean philosopher
and as the leading citizen of Tarentum--the contemporary and friend
of Plato, and, therefore, of course, earlier than Aristotle. Several
critics believed that Aristotle had borrowed his Ten Categories from
this work of Archytas; and we know that the latter preserved the
total number of Ten. See Schol. ad Categor. p. 79, b. 3, Br.
But other critics affirmed, apparently with better reason, that the
Archytas, author of this treatise, was a Peripatetic philosopher
later than Aristotle; and that the doctrine of Archytas on the
Categories was copied from Aristotle in the same manner as the Doric
treatise on the Kosmos, ascribed to the Lokrian Timæus, was copied
from the Timæus of Plato, being translated into a Doric dialect.
See Scholia of Simplikius and Boëthius, p. 33, a. 1, n.; p. 40, a.
43, Brandis. The fact that this treatise was ascribed to the
Tarentine Archytas, indicates how much the number Ten was consecrated
in men's minds as a Pythagorean canon.]
[Footnote 66: Trendelenburg thinks (Geschichte der Kategorienlehre,
p. 131) that Aristotle must have handled the Categories _Agere_, and
_Pati_ more copiously in other treatises; and there are some passages
in his works which render this probable. See De Animâ, ii. p. 416, b.
35; De Generat. Animal. iv. p. 768, b. 15. Moreover, in the list of
Aristotle's works given by Diogenes Laertius, one title appears--
[Greek: Peri\ tou= poiei=n kai\ peponthe/nai] (Diog. L. v. 22).]
[Footnote 67: Prantl expresses this view in his Geschichte der Logik
(p. 206), and I think it just.]
These remarks serve partly to meet the difficulties pointed out by
commentators in regard to the Ten Categories. From the century
immediately succeeding Aristotle, down to recent times, the question
has always been asked, why did Aristotle fix upon Ten Categories
rather than any other number? and why upon these Ten rather than
others? And ancient commentators[68] as well as modern have insisted,
that the classification is at once defective and redundant; leaving
out altogether some particulars, while it enumerates others twice
over or more than twice. (This last charge is, however, admitted by
Aristotle himself, who considers it no ground of objection that the
same particular may sometimes be ranked under two distinct heads.)
The replies made to the questions, and the attempts to shew cause for
the selection of these Ten classes, have not been satisfactory;
though it is certain that Aristotle himself treats the classification
as if it were real and exhaustive,[69] obtained by comparing many
propositions and drawing from them an induction. He tries to
determine, in regard to some particular enquiries, under which of the
Ten _Summa Genera_ the subject of the enquiry is to be ranged; he
indicates some predicate of extreme generality (_Unum_, _Bonum_,
&c.), which extend over all or several Categories, as equivocal or
analogous, representing no true _Genera_. But though Aristotle takes
this view of the completeness of his own classification, he never
assigns the grounds of it, and we are left to make them out in the
best way we can.
[Footnote 68: Schol. p. 47, b. 14, seq., 49, a. 10, seq. Br.; also
Simplikius ad Categor. fol. 15, 31 A, 33 E. ed. Basil., 1551.]
[Footnote 69 Scholia ad Analyt. Poster. (I. xxiii. p. 83, a. 21) p.
227, b. 40, Br. [Greek: O(/ti de\ tosau=tai mo/nai ai( katêgori/ai
ai( kata\ tô=n ou)siô=n lego/menai, e)k tê=s e)pagôgê=s lamba/nei.]
Brentano (in his treatise, Ueber die Bedeutung des Seienden in
Aristoteles, Sects. 12 and 13, pp. 148-177) attempts to draw out a
scheme of systematic deduction for the Categories. He quotes (pp.
181, 182) a passage from Thomas Aquinas, in which such a scheme is
set forth acutely and plausibly. But if Aristotle had had any such
system present to his mind, he would hardly have left it to be
divined by commentators.
Simplikius observes (Schol. ad Categ. p. 44, a. 30) that the last
nine Categories coincide in the main (excepting such portion of
_Quale_ as belongs to the Essence) with [Greek: to\ o)/n kata\
sumbebêko/s]: which latter, according to Aristotle's repeated
declarations, can never be the matter of any theorizing or scientific
treatment--[Greek: ou)demi/a e)sti\ peri\ au)to\ theôri/a], Metaphys.
E. p. 1026, b. 4; K. p. 1064, b. 17. This view of Aristotle
respecting [Greek: to\ sumbebêko/s], is hardly consistent with a
scheme of intentional deduction for the accidental predicates.]
We cannot safely presume, I think, that he followed out any deductive
principle or system; if he had done so, he would probably have
indicated it. The decuple indication of general heads arose rather
from comparison of propositions and induction therefrom. Under each
of these ten heads, some predicate or other may always be applied to
every concrete individual object, such as a man or animal. Aristotle
proceeded by comparing a variety of propositions, such as were
employed in common discourse or dialectic, and throwing the different
predicates into _genera_, according as they stood in different
logical relation to the Subject. The analysis applied is not
metaphysical but logical; it does not resolve the real individual
into metaphysical [Greek: a)rchai\] or Principles, such as Form and
Matter; it accepts the individual as he stands, with his full complex
array of predicates embodied in a proposition, and analyses that
proposition into its logical constituents.[70] The predicates derive
their existence from being attached to the First Subject, and have a
different manner of existence according as they are differently
related to the First Subject.[71] What is this individual, Sokrates?
He is an _animal_. What is his Species? _Man_. What is the
Differentia, limiting the Genus and constituting the Species?
_Rationality_, _two-footedness_. What is his height and bulk? He is
_six feet_ high, and is of _twelve stone_ weight. What manner of man
is he? He is _flat-nosed_, _virtuous_, _patient_, _brave_. In what
relation does he stand to others? He is a _father_, a _proprietor_, a
_citizen_, a _general_. What is he doing? He is _digging his garden_,
_ploughing his field_. What is being done to him? He is _being rubbed
with oil_, he is _having his hair cut_. Where is he? _In the city_,
_at home_, _in bed_. When do you speak of him? _As he is, at this
moment_, _as he was, yesterday_, _last year_. In what posture is he?
He is _lying down_, _sitting_, _standing up_, _kneeling_, _balancing
on one leg_. What is he wearing? He _has a tunic_, _armour_, _shoes_,
_gloves_.
[Footnote 70: Aristot. Metaphys. Z. p. 1038, b. 15. [Greek: dichô=s
u(pokei=tai, ê)\ to/de ti o)/n, ô(/sper to\ zô=|on toi=s pa/thesin,
ê)\ ô(s ê( u(/lê tê=| e)ntelechei/a|.] The first mode of [Greek:
u(pokei/menon] is what is in the Categories. For the second, which is
the metaphysical analysis, see Aristot. Metaph. Z. p. 1029, a. 23:
[Greek: ta\ me\n ga\r a)/lla tê=s ou)si/as katêgorei=tai, au(/tê de\
tê=s u(/lês. ô(/ste to\ e)/schaton kath' au(to\ ou)/te ti\ ou)/te
poso\n ou)/te a)/llo ou)the/n e)sti.]
Porphyry and Dexippus tell us (Schol. ad Categ. p. 45, a. 6-30) that
both Aristotle and the Stoics distinguished [Greek: prô=ton
u(pokei/menon] and [Greek: deu/teron u(pokei/menon]. The [Greek:
prô=ton u(pokei/menon] is [Greek: ê( a)/poios u(/lê--to\ duna/mei
sô=ma], which Aristotle insists upon in the Physica and Metaphysica,
the [Greek: deu/teron u(pokei/menon, o(\ koinô=s poio\n ê)\ i)di/ôs
u(phi/statai], coincides with the [Greek: prô/tê ou)si/a] of the
Categories, already implicated with [Greek: ei)=dos] and stopping
short of metaphysical analysis.