Metaphysics (Ross, 1908)/Book 12

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Book 11

Metaphysics (Ross, 1908)
(350 B.C.)
by Aristotle, translated by W. D. Ross and J. A. Smith

Book 12

Book 13

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(1908) Annotations pertaining to Greek translation not included.

Aristotle4170966Metaphysics (Ross, 1908)
— Book 12350 B.C.W. D. Ross and J. A. Smith

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Page:Metaphysics by Aristotle Ross 1908 (deannotated).djvu/257 Page:Metaphysics by Aristotle Ross 1908 (deannotated).djvu/258 A. BOOK XII 1069^

matter ; and of eternal things those which are not generable 25 but are movable in space have matter — not matter for generation, however, but for motion from one place to another.

(One might raise the question from what sort of non-being generation proceeds ; for * non-being ' has three senses.^)

If, then, a thing exists potentially, still it is not potentially any and every thing, but different things come from different things; nor is it satisfactory to say that *all things were together ' ; for they differ in their matter, since otherwise 30 why did an infinity of things come to be, and not one thing ? For * reason ^ ' is one, so that if matter also is one, that must have come to be in actuality which the matter was in potency." The causes and the principles, then, are three, two being the pair of contraries of which one is definition and form and the other is privation, and the third being the matter."

CHAPTER III

Next we must observe that neither the matter nor the form 35 comes to be — i. e. the proximate matter and form. For every- thing that changes is something and is changed by something and into something. That by which it is changed is the im- 1070* mediate mover ; thajt which is changed, the matter; that into which it is changed^the form. The process, then, will go on to infinity, if not only the bronze comes to be round but also the round or the bronze comes to be; therefore there must be a stop at some point.

Next we must observe that each substance comes into being 5 out of something that shares its name. (Natural objects and other things both rank as substances.) For things come into being either by art or by nature or by luck or by spontaneity. Now art is a principle of movement in something other

Alexander points out that a7rop^<r€t€ ... ^1/ refers to 1. 20. The three

senses are probably the absolutely non-existent, the false, and the potential.

^ Sc. the vovs of Anaxagoras* doctrine, summarized by D. L. in the words, navra xphv^oro. Jy 6ixov*^ wa vovs iKOoiV avta di€K6(rfirja'€v*

^ Sc. an undifferentiated unity.