A New Aristotle Reader by J. L. Ackrill
Author:J. L. Ackrill [Ackrill, J. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1987-12-31T22:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER 13
1038a
Let us again return to the subject of our inquiry, which is substance.
As the substrate and the essence and the compound of these are called
substance, so also is the universal. About two of these we have spoken;
5
about the essence and about the substrate, of which we have said that
it underlies in two senses, either being a ‘this’—which is the way in
which an animal underlies its attributes—, or as the matter underlies
the complete reality. The universal also is thought by some to be in the
fullest sense a cause, and a principle; therefore let us attack the discussion
of this point also. For it seems impossible that any universal
term should be the name of a substance. For primary substance is that
10
kind of substance which is peculiar to an individual, which does not
belong to anything else; but the universal is common, since that is
called universal which naturally belongs to more than one thing. Of
which individual then will this be the substance? Either of all or of
none. But it cannot be the substance of all; and if it is to be the
substance of one, this one will be the others also; for things whose
substance is one and whose essence is one are themselves also one.
15
Further, substance means that which is not predicable of a subject,
but the universal is predicable of some subjects always.
But perhaps the universal, while it cannot be substance in the way in
which the essence is so, can be present in this, e.g. animal can be
present in man and horse. Then clearly there is a formula of the
universal. And it makes no difference even if there is not a formula of
20
everything that is in the substance; for none the less the universal will
be the substance of something. Man is the substance of the individual
man in whom it is present; therefore the same will happen again, for
a substance, e.g. animal, must be the substance of that in which it is
present as something peculiar to it. And further it is impossible and
absurd that the ‘this’, i.e. the substance, if it consists of parts, should
25
not consist of substances nor of what is a ‘this’, but of quality; for that
which is not substance, i.e. the quality, will then be prior to substance
and to the ‘this’. Which is impossible; for neither in formula nor in
time nor in coming to be can the affections be prior to the substance;
for then they would be separable from it. Further, in Socrates there
will be a substance in a substance, so that he will be the substance of
30
two things. And in general it follows, if man and such things are
substances, that none of the elements in their formulae is the
substance of anything, nor does it exist apart from the species or in
anything else; I mean, for instance, that no animal exists apart from
the particular animals, nor does any other of the elements present in
formulae exist apart.
If, then, we view the matter from these standpoints, it is plain that
no universal attribute is a substance, and this is plain also from the fact
1039a
that no common predicate indicates a ‘this’, but rather a ‘such’.
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