Aristotle
It is thus that Aristotle has dealt with Ontology, in one of the four
distinct aspects thereof, which he distinguishes from each other;
that is, in the distribution of _Entia_ according to their logical
order, and the reciprocal interdependence, in predication. _Ens_ is a
multivocal word, neither strictly univocal nor altogether equivocal.
It denotes (as has been stated above) not a generic aggregate,
divisible into species, but an analogical aggregate, starting from
one common terminus and ramifying into many derivatives, having no
other community except that of relationship to the same
terminus.[119] The different modes of _Ens_ are distinguished by the
degree or variety of such relationship. The _Ens Primum_, _Proprium_,
_Completum_, is (in Aristotle's view) the concrete individual; with a
defined essence or essential constituent attributes ([Greek: ti/ ê(/n
ei)=nai]), and with unessential accessories or accidents also--all
embodied and implicated in the One _Hoc Aliquid_. In the Categoriæ
Aristotle analyses this _Ens Completum_ (not metaphysically, into
Form and Matter, as we shall find him doing elsewhere, but) logically
into Subject and Predicates. In this logical analysis, the Subject
which can never be a Predicate stands first; next, come the near
kinsmen, Genus and Species (expressed by substantive names, as the
First Substance is), which are sometimes Predicates--as applied to
_Substantia Prima_, sometimes Subjects--in regard to the extrinsic
accompaniments or accidents;[120] in the third rank, come the more
remote kinsmen, Predicates pure and simple. These are the logical
factors or constituents into which the _Ens Completum_ may be
analysed, and which together make it up as a logical sum-total. But
no one of these logical constituents has an absolute or independent
_locus standi_, apart from the others. Each is relative to the
others; the Subject to its Predicates, not less than the Predicates
to their Subject. It is a mistake to describe the Subject as having a
real standing separately and alone, and the Predicates as something
afterwards tacked on to it. The Subject _per se_ is nothing but a
general potentiality or receptivity for Predicates to come; a
relative general conception, in which the two, Predicate and Subject,
are jointly implicated as _Relatum_ and _Correlatum_.[121]
[Footnote 119: Aristot. Metaphys. [Greek: D]. p. 1017, a. 22. [Greek:
kath' au(ta\ de\ ei)=nai le/getai o(/saper sêmai/nei ta\ schê/mata
tê=s katêgori/as; o)sachô=s ga\r le/getai, tosautachô=s to\ ei)=nai
sêmai/nei.]]
[Footnote 120: Categor. p. 3, a. 1: [Greek: ô(s de/ ge ai( prô=tai
ou)si/ai pro\s ta\ a)/lla pa/nta e)/chousin, ou(/tô ta\ ei)/dê kai\
ta\ ge/nê pro\s ta\ loipa\ pa/nta e)/chei; kata\ tou/tôn ga\r pa/nta
ta\ loipa\ katêgorei=tai.]]
[Footnote 121: Bonitz has an instructive note upon Form and Matter,
the _metaphysical_ constituents of _Prima Substantia_, _Hoc Aliquid_,
Sokrates, Kallias (see Aristot. Metaphys. Z. p. 1033, b. 24), which
illustrates pertinently the relation between Predicate and Subject,
the _logical_ constituents of the same [Greek: su/nolon]. He observes
(not. p. 327, **ad Aristot. Metaph. Z. p. 1033, b. 19). "Quoniam ex
duabus substantiis, quæ quidem actu sint, nunquam una existit
substantia, si et formam et materiem utrumque per se esse poneremus,
nunquam ex utroque existeret res definita ac sensibilis, [Greek:
to/de ti]. Ponendum potius, si recte assequor Aristotelis sententiam,
utrumque (Form and Matter) ita ut alterum exspectet, materia ut formæ
definitionem, forma ut materiam definiendam, exspectet, neutra vero
per se et absolute sit." What Bonitz says here about Matter and Form
is no less true about Subject and Predicate: each is relative to the
other--neither of them is absolute or independent of the other. In
fact, the explanation given by Aristotle of _Materia_ (Metaph. Z. p.
1028, b. 36) coincides very much with the _Prima Essentia_ of the
Categories, if abstracted from the _Secunda Essentia_. _Materia_ is
called there by Aristotle [Greek: to\ u(pokei/menon, kath' ou(= ta\
a)/lla le/getai. e)kei=no d' au)to\ mêke/ti kat' a)/llo--le/gô d'
u(/lên ê(\ kath' au(tê\n mê/te ti\ mê/te poso\n mê/te a)/llo mêthe\n
le/getai oi(=s ô(/ristai to\ o)/n] (p. 1029, a. 20). [Greek: e)/sti
ga/r ti kath' ou(= katêgorei=tai tou/tôn e(/kaston, ô(=| _to\ ei)=nai
e(/teron_ kai\ tô=n katêgoriô=n e(ka/stê|; ta\ me\n ga\r a)/lla tê=s
ou)si/as katêgorei=tai, au(/tê de\ tê=s u(/lês.]
Aristotle proceeds to say that this Subject--the Subject for all
Predicates, but never itself a Predicate--cannot be the genuine
[Greek: ou)si/a], which must essentially be [Greek: chôristo\n kai\
to\ to/de ti] (p. 1029, a. 28), and which must have a [Greek: ti/
ê)=n ei)=nai] (1029, b. 2). The Subject is in fact not true [Greek:
ou)si/a], but is one of the constituent elements thereof, being
relative to the Predicates as _Correlata_: it is the potentiality for
Predicates generally, as _Materia_ is the potentiality for Forms.]
The logical aspect of Ontology, analysing _Ens_ into a common Subject
with its various classes of Predicates, appears to begin with
Aristotle. He was, as far as we can see, original, in taking as the
point of departure for his theory, the individual man, horse, or
other perceivable object; in laying down this Concrete Particular
with all its outfit of details, as the type of _Ens_ proper, complete
and primary; and in arranging into classes the various secondary
modes of _Ens_, according to their different relations to the primary
type and the mode in which they contributed to make up its
completeness. He thus stood opposed to the Pythagoreans and
Platonists, who took their departure from the Universal, as the type
of full and true Entity;[122] while he also dissented from
Demokritus, who recognized no true _Ens_ except the underlying,
imperceptible, eternal atoms and vacuum. Moreover Aristotle seems to
have been the first to draw up a logical analysis of Entity in its
widest sense, as distinguished from that metaphysical analysis which
we read in his other works; the two not being contradictory, but
distinct and tending to different purposes. Both in the one and in
the other, his principal controversy seems to have been with the
Platonists, who disregarded both individual objects and accidental
attributes; dwelling upon Universals, Genera and Species, as the only
real _Entia_ capable of being known. With the Sophists, Aristotle
contends on a different ground, accusing them of neglecting
altogether the essential attributes, and confining themselves to the
region of accidents, in which no certainty was to be found;[123] in
Plato, he points out the opposite mistake, of confining himself to
the essentials, and ascribing undue importance to the process of
generic and specific subdivision.[124] His own logical analysis takes
account both of the essential and accidental, and puts them in what
he thinks their proper relation. The Accidental ([Greek:
sumbebêko/s]), concomitant, _i.e._ of the essence) is _per se_ not
knowable at all (he contends), nor is ever the object of study
pursued in any science; it is little better than a name, designating
the lowest degree of _Ens_, bordering on _Non-Ens_.[125] It is a term
comprehending all that he includes under his nine last Categories;
yet it is not a term connoting either generic communion, or even so
much as analogical relation.[126] In the treatise now before us, he
does not recognize either that or any other general term as common to
all those nine Categories; each of the nine is here treated as a
_Summum Genus_, having its own mode of relationship, and clinging by
its own separate thread to the Subject. He acknowledges the Accidents
in his classification, not as a class by themselves, but as
subordinated to the Essence, and, as so many threads of distinct,
variable, and irregular accompaniments, attaching themselves to this
constant root, without uniformity or steadiness.[127]
[Footnote 122: Simplikius ad Categ. p. 2, b. 5; Schol. p. 52, a. 1,
Br: [Greek: A)rchu/tas o( Puthagorei=os ou) prosi/etai tê\n nuni\
prokeime/nên tô=n ou)si/ôn diai/resin, a)ll' a)/llên a)nti\ tau/tês
e)kei=nos e)gkri/nei--tô=n me/ntoi Puthagorei/ôn ou)dei\s a)\n
pro/soito tau/tên tê\n diai/resin tô=n prô/tôn kai\ deute/rôn
ou)siô=n, o(/ti toi=s katho/lou to\ prô/tôs u(pa/rchein marturou=si,
to\ de\ e)/schaton e)n toi=s meristoi=s a)polei/pousi, kai\ dio/ti
e)n toi=s a(plousta/tois tê\n prô/tên kai\ kuriôta/tên ou)si/an
a)poti/thentai, a)ll' ou)ch ô(s nu=n le/getai e)n toi=s sunthe/tois
kai\ ai)sthêtoi=s, kai\ dio/ti ta\ ge/nê kai\ ta\ ei)/dê o)/nta
nomi/zousin, a)ll' ou)chi\ sugkephalaiou/mena tai=s chôristai=s
e)pinoi/ais.]]
[Footnote 123: Metaphys. E. p. 1026, b. 15: [Greek: ei)si\ ga\r oi(
tô=n sophistô=n lo/goi peri\ to\ sumbebêko\s ô(s ei)pei=n ma/lista
pa/ntôn], &c.; also K. p. 1061, b. 8; Analytic. Poster. i. p. 71, b.
10.]
[Footnote 124: Analytic. Priora, i. p. 46, a. 31.]
[Footnote 125: Aristot. Metaph. E. p. 1026, b. 13-21. [Greek: ô(/sper
ga\r o)no/mati mo/non to\ sumbebêko/s--phai/netai ga\r to\
sumbebêko\s e)ggu/s ti tou= mê\ o)/ntos.]]
[Footnote 126: Physica, iii. 1, p. 200, b. 34. [Greek: koino\n d'
e)pi\ tou/tôn ou)de/n e)sti labei=n], &c.]
[Footnote 127: See the explanation given of [Greek: to\ o)\n kata\
sumbebêko\s] in Metaphys. E. pp. 1026 b., 1027 a. This is the sense
in which Aristotle most frequently and usually talks of [Greek:
sumbebêko/s], though he sometimes uses it to include also a constant
and inseparable accompaniment or Accident, if it be not included in
the Essence (_i. e._ not connoted by the specific name); thus, to
have the three angles equal to two right angles is a [Greek:
sumbebêko\s] of the triangle, Metaph. [Greek: D]. p. 1025, a. 80. The
proper sense in which he understands [Greek: to\ sumbebêko\s] is as
opposed to [Greek: to\ a)ei\ e)x a)na/gkês], as well as [Greek: to\
ô(s e)pi\ to\ polu/]. See Metaphys. K. p. 1065, a. 2; Analyt. Poster.
i. p. 74, b. 12, p. 75, a. 18.
It is that which is by its nature irregular and unpredictable. See
the valuable chapter (ii) in Brentano, Von der Bedeutung des Seienden
nach Aristoteles (pp. 8-21), in which the meaning of [Greek: to\
sumbebêko\s] in Aristotle is clearly set forth.]
In discriminating and arranging the Ten Categories, Trendelenburg
supposes that Aristotle was guided, consciously or unconsciously, by
grammatical considerations, or by a distinction among the parts of
speech. It should be remembered that what are now familiarly known as
the eight parts of speech, had not yet been distinguished or named in
the time of Aristotle, nor did the distinction come into vogue before
the time of the Stoic and Alexandrine grammarians, more than a
century after him. _Essentia_ or _Substantia_, the first Category,
answers (so Trendelenburg thinks[128]) to the Substantive; _Quantum_
and _Quale_ represent the Adjective; _Ad Aliquid_, the comparative
Adjective, of which _Quantum_ and _Quale_ are the positive degree;
_Ubi_ and _Quando_ the Adverb; _Jacere_, _Habere_, _Agere_, _Pati_
the Verb. Of the last four, _Agere_ and _Pati_ correspond to the
active and passive voices of the Verb; _Jacere_ to the neuter or
intransitive Verb; and _Habere_ to the peculiar meaning of the Greek
perfect--the present result of a past action.
[Footnote 128: Trendelenburg, Kategorienlehre, pp. 23, 211.]
This general view, which Trendelenburg himself conceives as having
been only guiding and not decisive or peremptory in the mind of
Aristotle,[129] appears to me likely and plausible, though Bonitz and
others have strongly opposed it. We see from Aristotle's own
language, that the grammatical point of view had great effect upon
his mind; that the form (_e.g._) of a substantive implied in his view