Глава LVII. О противоположном

Everything that is opposed is opposed either as a thing or as a thought. If a thought is a thought, then the result is affirmation and negation. An assertion is a speech about what belongs to some object; for example, he is handsome. Negation is speech about what does not belong to any object; for example, he is not handsome. Both are called judgments. (If the opposite) is opposed as a thing, then it is opposed either to mutually reciprocal objects and forms relations that mutually either connect them with each other, or eliminate them, or those that do not reciprocate and have no relationship with each other. And these either change into each other, but nevertheless remain consistent with nature and produce the opposite, like heat and cold, - or one changes into the other, but the other does not change into the first. Moreover, one of them corresponds to nature, the other is contrary to nature, and the opposite of deprivation and possession is obtained - for example, sight and blindness; for sight is possession, insofar as it is conditioned by property, but blindness is deprivation of property, i.e. vision. As for opposites, some of them do not have a mean, others have a mean. Those nasty opposites do not have an average, of which one, namely one, must necessarily be present in their substrate, or in the object about which they are expressed - for example, disease and health, which have the body of an animal as a substrate. It is absolutely necessary that either illness or health be present in the body. We call any disorder (παρατροπη) of nature a disease. The mean is those opposite opposites, one of which does not necessarily have to be in their substrate, or in the object about which they are spoken. These are, for example, white and black. White and black are opposite to each other, but it is not necessary that every body be white or black, for bodies are also gray and red. The exception is those cases when one of the opposites belongs to some thing by nature, like heat to fire and cold to snow. Of the opposites that have an average, some have names [for this average] - for example, the average between white and black is called gray; others do not have names - thus, the mean between fair and unjust does not have a name, but is defined through negation as something intermediate, namely: both unfair and not unfair. Opposites have the following properties. Firstly: good is necessarily opposed to evil; Evil can be opposed to both good and other evil. Moderation [is the opposite of immoderation; immoderation - sometimes moderation], sometimes dementia. But dementia occurs when passions are absent and not aroused. Thus, immoderation is a lack of moderation, and imbecility is an excessive excess (ὑπερβολη), while excess is the opposite of deficiency. Secondly, opposites cannot belong to the same individuals in the same respect. Thus, Socrates cannot be both healthy and sick at the same time; one and the same member cannot simultaneously heat up and cool down. Thirdly, opposites are found in the same substrate: either the genus, or the species, or the individual (αριθμω). In gender, for example, in the body in general there is white and black; in the form, for example, in the body of an animal, health and disease; in the individual - this is clear, for one and the same body, due to the changes it experiences, turns out to be capable of accepting opposites. Fourthly, opposite opposites are subordinate either to the same genus, like white and black - to color, or to opposite genera, like justice and injustice - to good and evil, which are opposite to each other, or finally, they themselves are opposite genera, as opposite genera are good and evil. You might be interested in: