that which shares with another thing the greater number or the more important of the attributes (each of them one of two contraries) in respect of which things are capable of altering, is like that other thing.[1] The senses of 'unlike' are opposite to those of 'like'.
Chapter 10
The term 'opposite' is applied to contradictories, and contraries, and relative terms, and privation and possession, and the extremes from which and into which generation and dissolution take place;[2] and the attributes that cannot be present at the same time in that which is receptive of both, are said to be opposed, — either themselves or their constituents. Grey and white colour do not belong at the same time to the same thing; therefore their constituents are opposed.[3]
The term 'contrary' is applied (1) to those attributes that differ in genus, which cannot belong at the same time to the same subject, (2) to the most different of the things in the same genus, (3) to the most different of the attributes in the same receptive material, (4) to the most different of the things that fall under the same faculty, (5) to the things whose difference is greatest either absolutely or in genus or in species. The other things that are called contrary are so called, some because they possess contraries of the above kind, some because they are receptive of such, some because they are productive of or susceptible to such, or are producing or suffering them, or are losses or acquisitions, or possessions or privations, of such. Since 'one' and 'being' have many senses, the other concepts which are derived from these, and therefore 'same', 'other', and 'contrary', must correspond, so that they must be different for each category.
The term 'other in species' is applied to things which being of the same genus are not subordinate the one to the
- ↑ Such attributes are hot and cold, wet and dry, rough and smooth, hard and soft, white and black, sweet and bitter. The more important pairs of contraries, in Aristotle's view, are the first two.
- ↑ The extremes meant may be (1) being and not being, or (2) matter (potentiality) and form (actuality).
- ↑ We cannot say grey and white are opposed, but we say the constituents of grey (black and white) are opposed.
