[1020a]
[1]
i.e. "a source of change which
exists in something other than that in which the change takes place,
or in the same thing qua other."Other things are said to be
"potent"1 because something else has such
apotency over them; others
because it does not possess it; others because it possesses it in a
particular way. The term "impotent" is similarly used. Thus the
authoritative definition of "potency" in the primary sense will be "a
principle producing change, which is in something other than that in
which the change takes place, or in the same thing qua other.""Quantity" means that which is
divisible into constituent parts, each2 or every one
of which is by nature some one individual thing. Thus plurality, if it
is numerically calculable, is a kind of quantity; and so is magnitude,
if it is measurable. "Plurality" means that which is potentially
divisible into non-continuous parts; and "magnitude" that which is
potentially divisible into continuous parts. Of kinds of magnitude,
that which is continuous in one direction is length; in two
directions, breadth; in three, depth.And of these, plurality, when limited, is a
number; length, a line; breadth, a plane; depth, a body. Again, some
things are essentially quantitative, but others only accidentally;
e.g. the line is essentially, but "cultured" accidentally
quantitative.And of
the former class some are quantitative in virtue of their substance,
e.g. the fine (because the definition which describes it is
quantitative in some form);
[20]
and others are attributes and conditions of a substance of this
kind— e.g., "much" and "little," "long" and "short," "broad"
and "narrow," "deep" and "shallow," "heavy" and "light,"
etc.Moreover,
"great" and "small," and "greater" and "smaller," whether used
absolutely or relatively to one another, are essential attributes of
quantity; by an extension of meaning, however, these terms are also
applied to other things.Of things called quantitative in an accidental sense, one kind is so
called in the sense in which we said above that "cultured" or "white"
is quantitative—because the subject to which they belong is
quantitative; and others in the sense that motion and time are so
called—for these too are said in a sense to be quantitative
and continuous, since the subjects of which they are attributes are
divisible. I mean, not the thing moved, but that through or along
which the motion has taken place; for it is because the latter is
quantitative that the motion is quantitative, and because the motion
is quantitative that the time is also."Quality" means
(a) in one sense, the differentia of essence; e.g., a man is an animal
of a certain quality because he is two-footed; and so is a horse,
because it is four-footed. Also a circle is a geometrical figure of a
certain quality, because it has no angles;
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