Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/24

ciated without any connexion, none is either true or false, as "man," "white," "runs," "conquers."

Chap. V.—Of Substance.^[1]

1. Primary substance is neither in, nor is predicated of, any subject. Substance, in its strictest, first, and chief sense, is that which is neither predicated of any subject, nor is in any; as "a certain man" or "a certain horse." But 2. Secondary substances contain the first. secondary substances are they, in which as species, those primarily-named substances are inherent, that is to say, both these and the genera of these species;^[2] as "a certain man" exists in "man," as in a species, but the genus of this species is "animal;" these, therefore, are termed secondary substances,

1. On the various modes in which Aristotle employs the term οὐσία, cf. Metaphy. lib. iv., and Phys. lib. iii. Without entering into the dispute relative to the real existence of genera and species, as substances independent of us, between the old Realists and the modern Conceptualists, it will be sufficient to state that Aristotle here employs the term as the summum genus, under which, by continued abstraction of differences, all things may be comprehended as a common universal. Thus also Plato in Repub. lib. vii. Whether called Entity, Being, Substance, or Subsistence, it may be defined, "That which subsists independently of any other created thing," and in this view may be affirmatively predicated of every cognate term, though no cognate term can be so predicated of it: thus all bodies, all animals, all lions, etc., are substances or things, according as we adopt either of these last as summum genus. Archytas places essence first; Plotinus and Nicostratus doubt its generic affinity altogether; but all regard the principle laid down, of some one, independent, existence, or conception.
2. But in getting to this ultimate abstraction, the first common nature of which the mind forms conception from individual comparison, is called the lowest primary or most specific species, and of this, every cognate term may be universally predicated, though itself cannot be predicated of any cognate term. Between these extremes, all intermediate notions (and their verbal signs) are called subaltern, each of which, like the step of a ladder, is at once superior to some and inferior to others, and becomes a genus in relation to some lower species, and a species to some higher genera. The annexed "Arbor Porphyriana" is given by Aquinas, Opusc. 48. Tract. 2, cap. 3. In all the earlier specimens, "animal rationale" is placed between "Animal" and "Homo," as the proximum genus, divided into "mortale" and "immortale," in accordance with Porphyry's definition of man. We shall here observe also, that a summum genus can have no constitutive differences, which are represented at the side, though a summum genus may have properties.