[1055a]
[1]
and so are in the same genus and the
same in genus. We have distinguished elsewhere1 what sort of things are the same or other
in genus. Since things which differ can differ from one
another in a greater or less degree, there is a certain maximum
difference, and this I call contrariety. That it is the maximum
difference is shown by induction. For whereas things which differ in
genus have no means of passing into each other, and are more widely
distant, and are not comparable, in the case of things which differ in
species the contraries are the extremes from which generation takes
place;and the
greatest distance is that which is between the extremes, and therefore
also between the contraries. But in every class the greatest thing is
complete. For (a) that is greatest which cannot be exceeded, and (b)
that is complete outside which nothing proper to it can be found. For
complete difference implies an end, just as all other things are
called complete because they imply an end.And there is nothing beyond the end; for in
everything the end is the last thing, and forms the boundary. Thus
there is nothing beyond the end, and that which is complete lacks
nothing.From this argument, then,
it is clear that contrariety is maximum difference; and since we speak
of contraries in various senses, the sense of completeness will vary
in accordance with the sense of contrariety which applies to the
contraries.
[20]
This being so, evidently one thing cannot
have more than one contrary (since there can be nothing more extreme
than the extreme, nor can there be more than two extremes of one
interval); and in general this is evident, if contrariety is
difference, and difference (and therefore complete difference) is
between two things. The other definitions of contraries
must also be true, for (1.) complete difference is the maximum
difference; since (a) we can find nothing beyond it, whether things
differ in genus or in species (for we have shown that difference in
relation to things outside the genus is impossible; this is the
maximum difference between them); and (b) the things which differ most
in the same genus are contraries; for complete difference is the
maximum difference between these.(2.) The things which differ most in the same
receptive material are contraries; for contraries have the same
matter. (3.) The most different things which come under the same
faculty are contraries; for one science treats of one class of things,
in which complete difference is the greatest.
"Positive state" and "Privation" constitute primary
contrariety—not every form of privation (for it has several
senses), but any form which is complete. All other contraries must be
so called with respect to these; some because they possess these,
others because they produce them or are productive of them, and others
because they are acquisitions or losses of these or other
contraries.Now if
the types of opposition are contradiction, privation, contrariety and
relation,
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.