g. that which is
capable of heating is related to that which is capable of being
heated, because it can heat it, and, again, that which heats is
related to that which is heated and that which cuts to that which is
cut, in the sense that they actually do these things. But numerical
relations are not actualized except in the sense which has been
elsewhere stated; actualizations in the sense of movement they have
not. Of relations which imply potency some further imply particular
periods of time, e.g. that which has made is relative to that which
has been made, and that which will make to that which will be made.
For it is in this way that a father is called the father of his son;
for the one has acted and the other has been acted on in a certain
way. Further, some relative terms imply privation of potency, i.e.
'incapable' and terms of this sort, e.g. 'invisible'.
Relative terms which imply number or potency, therefore, are all
relative because their very essence includes in its nature a reference
to something else, not because something else involves a reference
to it; but (3) that which is measurable or knowable or thinkable is
called relative because something else involves a reference to it. For
'that which is thinkable' implies that the thought of it is
possible, but the thought is not relative to 'that of which it is
the thought'; for we should then have said the same thing twice.
Similarly sight is the sight of something, not 'of that of which it is
the sight' (though of course it is true to say this); in fact it is
relative to colour or to something else of the sort.
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