Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 2 (1853).djvu/251

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

which there is one answer, so that neither many things must be affirmed or denied of one thing, nor one of many, but one of one. As indeed in the case of things equivocal, at one time (the attribute) is in both, but at another in neither, so that the interrogation not being simple, it happens that those who answer simply, suffer nothing; in like manner also, in these cases. When then many are present with one, or one with many, nothing repugnant happens to him who simply concedes, and who errs according to this error; but when it is in one, but not in the other, or many are predicated of many, and both are partly present with both, and partly not, this, again, is to be avoided. For instance, in these arguments: If one thing is good, but another evil, it is true to say that these are good and evil, and again, that they are neither good nor evil, since each is not each, wherefore the same thing is good and evil, and is neither good nor evil. Also, Is every thing the same with itself, and different from something else? but since these are not the same with others, but with themselves, and are different from themselves, the same things are different from, and the same with, themselves. Besides, if what is good becomes evil, and what is evil good, there will be two things, and of two, being unequal, each itself will be equal to itself, so that the same things will be equal and unequal to themselves.

Such arguments, then, fall into other solutions, for "both" also, and "all" signify many things, wherefore, except the name, it does not happen that the same thing is affirmed and denied, but this was not an elenchus. Still, it is clear that