[76] Aristot. Categor. p. 15, b. 17; Metaphys. Δ. p. 1023, a. 8.
[77] See the Scholia of Simplikius, p. 80, b. 7, seq.; p. 92, b. 41, Brand.; where the different views of Archytas, Plotinus, and Boêthus, are given; also p. 59, b. 43: προηγεῖται γὰρ ἡ συμφυὴς τῶν πρός τι σχέσις τῶν ἐπικτήτων σχέσεων, ὡς καὶ τῲ Ἀρχύτᾳ δοκεῖ. In the language of Archytas, αἱ ἐπίκτητοι σχέσεις were the equivalent of the Aristotelian ἔχειν.
The narrow manner in which Aristotle conceives the Predicament Habere in the treatise Categoriæ, and the enlarged sense given to that term both in the Post-Predicaments and in the Metaphysica, lead to a suspicion that the Categoriæ is comparatively early, in point of date, among his compositions. It seems more likely that he should begin with the narrower view, and pass from thence to the larger, rather than vice versâ. Probably the predicates specially applicable to Man would be among his early conceptions, but would by later thought be tacitly dropped,[78] so as to retain those only which had a wider philosophical application.
[78] Respecting the paragraph (at the close of the Categoriæ) about τὸ ἔχειν, see the Scholion in Waitz’s ed. of the Organon, p. 38.
The fact that Archytas in his treatise presented the Aristotelian Category ἔχειν under the more general phrase of αἱ ἐπίκτητοι σχέσεις (see the preceding note), is among the reasons for believing that treatise to be later than Aristotle.
I have already remarked that Aristotle, while enrolling all the Ten Predicaments as independent heads, each the Generalissimum of a separate descending line of predicates, admitted at the same time that various predicates did not of necessity belong to one of these lines exclusively, but might take rank in more than one line. There are some which he enumerates under all the different heads of Quality, Relation, Action, Passion. The classification is evidently recognized as one to which we may apply a remark which he makes especially in regard to Quality and Relation, under both of which heads (he says) the same predicates may sometimes be counted.[79] And the observation is much more extensively true than he was aware; for he both conceives and defines the Category of Relation or Relativity (Ad Aliquid) in a way much narrower than really belongs to it. If he had assigned to this Category its full and true comprehension, he would have found it implicated with all the other nine. None of them can be isolated from it in predication.
[79] Aristot. Categ. p. 11, a. 37.
Simplikius says that what Aristotle admits about ποιότης, is true about all the other Categories also, viz.: that it is not a strict and proper γένος. Each of the ten Categories is (what Aristotle says about τὸ ὃν) μέσον τῶν τε συνωνόμων καὶ ὁμωνύμων. — οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκεῖνα κυρίως ἐστὶ γένη, οὐδὲ ὡς γένη τῶν ὑπ’ αὐτὰ κατηγορεῖται, τάξεως οὔσης πανταχοῦ πρώτων καὶ δευτέρων. (Scholia ad Categor. p. 69, b. 30, Br.) This is a remarkable observation, which has not been sufficiently adverted to, I think, by Brentano in his treatise on Aristotle’s Ontology.
That Agere and Pati (with the illustrations which he himself gives thereof — urit, uritur) may be ranked as varieties under the generic Category of Relation or Relativity, can hardly be overlooked. The like is seen to be true about Ubi and Quando, when we advert to any one of the predicates belonging to either; such as, in the market-place, yesterday.[80] Moreover, not merely the last six of the ten Categories, but also the second and fourth (Quantum and Quale) are implicated with and subordinated to Relation. If we look at Quantum, we shall find that the example which Aristotle gives of it is τριπῆχυς, tricubital, or three cubits long; a term quite as clearly relative as the term διπλάσιος or double, which he afterwards produces as instance of the Category Ad Aliquid.[81] When we are asked the questions, How much is the height? How large is the field? we cannot give the information required except by a relative predicate — it is three feet — it is four acres; we thereby carry back the mind of the questioner to some unit of length or superficies already known to him, and we convey our meaning by comparison with such unit. Again, if we turn from Quantum to Quale, we find the like Relativity implied in all the predicates whereby answer is made to the question Ποιὸς τίς ἐστι; Qualis est? What manner of man is he? He is such as A, B, C — persons whom we have previously seen, or heard, or read of.[82]
[80] The remarks of Plotinus upon these four last-mentioned Categories are prolix and vague, but many of them go to shew how much τὸ πρός τι is involved in all of the four (Ennead. vi. 1, 14-18).