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The Categories

Aristotle · c. 335 BCE primary

passage 17 of 33 · Section 1 > Part 7 (5/5)

in brief
Aristotle concludes that since head and hand are substances but depend on whose they are, we cannot know immediately whose head or hand is meant; he treats these detailed difficulties as motivating further examination.

be that nothing was less beautiful. It is, therefore, evident that if a man apprehends some relative thing definitely, he necessarily knows that also definitely to which it is related.

Now the head, the hand, and such things are substances, and it is possible to know their essential character definitely, but it does not necessarily follow that we should know that to which they are related. It is not possible to know forthwith whose head or hand is meant. Thus these are not relatives, and, this being the case, it would be true to say that no substance is relative in character. It is perhaps a difficult matter, in such cases, to make a positive statement without more exhaustive examination, but to have raised questions with regard to details is not without advantage.

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topics: doubt, skepticism, and certainty · language, naming, and meaning

The Categories · Aristotle · 335 BCE