Page:Metaphysics by Aristotle Ross 1908 (deannotated).djvu/98

place, if we define what the true and the false are. To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true; so that he who says of anything that it is, or that it is not, will say either what is true or what is false; but neither what is nor what is not is said to be or not to be.^[1] — Again, either the intermediate between the contradictories will be so in the way in which grey is between black and white,^[2] or as that which is neither man nor horse is between man and horse, (1) If it were of the latter kind, it could not change into the extremes, for change is from not-good to good, or from good to not-good (but as a matter of fact when there is an intermediate it is always observed to change into the extremes). For there is no change except to opposites^[3] and to their intermediate. (2) But if it is really intermediate,^[4] in this way too there is a difficulty — there would have to be a change to white, which was not from not-white; but as it is, this is never seen. — Again, the understanding either affirms or denies every object of understanding or reason; this becomes obvious if we define when thought is true and when false. When it connects in one way by assertion or negation, it is true, and when it does so in the other way, it is false. — Again, there must be an intermediate between all contradictories, if one is not arguing merely for the sake of argument; so that it will be possible for a man to say what is neither true nor untrue. And there will be a middle between that which is and that which is not, so that there will also be a kind of change intermediate between generation and destruction. — Again, in all classes in which the negation of an attribute means the assertion of its contrary, even in these there will be an intermediate ; for instance, in the sphere of numbers there will be number which is neither odd nor not-odd. But this is impossible, as is obvious from the definition. - Again, the process will go on ad infinitum, and the number

1. Sc. by those who say there is an intermediate between contradictories. Hence such a statement is neither true nor false, which is absurd.
2. Though of course it differs from this case in being between contradictories, not contraries.
3. Sc. contrary, not contradictory opposites.
4. Sc. as grey is between black and white.