For there is
nothing to prevent the same thing from being both a man and white
and countless other things: but still, if one asks whether it is or is
not true to say that this is a man, our opponent must give an answer
which means one thing, and not add that 'it is also white and
large'. For, besides other reasons, it is impossible to enumerate
its accidental attributes, which are infinite in number; let him,
then, enumerate either all or none. Similarly, therefore, even if
the same thing is a thousand times a man and a not-man, he must not,
in answering the question whether this is a man, add that it is also
at the same time a not-man, unless he is bound to add also all the
other accidents, all that the subject is or is not; and if he does
this, he is not observing the rules of argument.
And in general those who say this do away with substance and
essence. For they must say that all attributes are accidents, and that
there is no such thing as 'being essentially a man' or 'an animal'.
For if there is to be any such thing as 'being essentially a man' this
will not be 'being a not-man' or 'not being a man' (yet these are
negations of it); for there was one thing which it meant, and this was
the substance of something. And denoting the substance of a thing
means that the essence of the thing is nothing else. But if its
being essentially a man is to be the same as either being
essentially a not-man or essentially not being a man, then its essence
will be something else. Therefore our opponents must say that there
cannot be such a definition of anything, but that all attributes are
accidental; for this is the distinction between substance and
accident-'white' is accidental to man, because though he is white,
whiteness is not his essence.
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