For it is enough if they are this, even if they are not
Forms; or rather, perhaps, even if they are Forms. (At the same time
it is clear that if there are Ideas such as some people say there are,
it will not be substratum that is substance; for these must be
substances, but not predicable of a substratum; for if they were
they would exist only by being participated in.)
Each thing itself, then, and its essence are one and the same in
no merely accidental way, as is evident both from the preceding
arguments and because to know each thing, at least, is just to know
its essence, so that even by the exhibition of instances it becomes
clear that both must be one.
(But of an accidental term, e.g.'the musical' or 'the white',
since it has two meanings, it is not true to say that it itself is
identical with its essence; for both that to which the accidental
quality belongs, and the accidental quality, are white, so that in a
sense the accident and its essence are the same, and in a sense they
are not; for the essence of white is not the same as the man or the
white man, but it is the same as the attribute white.)
The absurdity of the separation would appear also if one were to
assign a name to each of the essences; for there would be yet
another essence besides the original one, e.g. to the essence of horse
there will belong a second essence. Yet why should not some things
be their essences from the start, since essence is substance? But
indeed not only are a thing and its essence one, but the formula of
them is also the same, as is clear even from what has been said; for
it is not by accident that the essence of one, and the one, are one.
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