Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/557

AEISTOTLE'S EXPLANATION OF AKPASIA. 541 doctrine, while getting rid of its paradox. A/cpao-ia is not acting contrary to knowledge in the true sense the knowledge of uni- versals of principles. Not the principle but the sense-knowledge of the particular, the minor premise, is what is diverted and thrust aside in a/cpao-ia. This seems to be the meaning of 14, though the expression is cumbrous and the text possibly corrupt. Aristotle's whole argument brings him to the same conclusion as that of Mr. F. H. Bradley in his treatment of the question, " Can a man sin against knowledge?" in MIND, vol. ix. (O. S.), p. 290 : " It is only where the attention is concentred upon the quality of the act, and even then it is only where the act in its wrongful quality is present as a vivid imagination, that the conscience will be irresistible. It is not knowledge, it is a relative degree of feeling excited by a certain kind of knowledge, that coerces the appetite. This, I think, will furnish us with a partial justification of our paradox, and it also may serve as its final refutation." D. G. EITCHIE.