Even if those who support this view do not
express it articulately, still this is what they mean, and they must
be maintaining the Forms just because each of the Forms is a substance
and none is by accident.
But if we are to suppose both that the Forms exist and that the
principles are one in number, not in kind, we have mentioned the
impossible results that necessarily follow.
(13) Closely connected with this is the question whether the
elements exist potentially or in some other manner. If in some other
way, there will be something else prior to the first principles; for
the potency is prior to the actual cause, and it is not necessary
for everything potential to be actual.-But if the elements exist
potentially, it is possible that everything that is should not be. For
even that which is not yet is capable of being; for that which is
not comes to be, but nothing that is incapable of being comes to be.
(12) We must not only raise these questions about the first
principles, but also ask whether they are universal or what we call
individuals. If they are universal, they will not be substances; for
everything that is common indicates not a 'this' but a 'such', but
substance is a 'this'. And if we are to be allowed to lay it down that
a common predicate is a 'this' and a single thing, Socrates will be
several animals-himself and 'man' and 'animal', if each of these
indicates a 'this' and a single thing.
If, then, the principles are universals, these universal.
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