Further, if they are to be different, the process will go on to
infinity; for we shall have (1) the essence of one, and (2) the one,
so that to terms of the former kind the same argument will be
applicable.
Clearly, then, each primary and self-subsistent thing is one and
the same as its essence. The sophistical objections to this
position, and the question whether Socrates and to be Socrates are the
same thing, are obviously answered by the same solution; for there
is no difference either in the standpoint from which the question
would be asked, or in that from which one could answer it
successfully. We have explained, then, in what sense each thing is the
same as its essence and in what sense it is not.
7
Of things that come to be, some come to be by nature, some by art,
some spontaneously. Now everything that comes to be comes to be by the
agency of something and from something and comes to be something.
And the something which I say it comes to be may be found in any
category; it may come to be either a 'this' or of some size or of some
quality or somewhere.
Now natural comings to be are the comings to be of those things
which come to be by nature; and that out of which they come to be is
what we call matter; and that by which they come to be is something
which exists naturally; and the something which they come to be is a
man or a plant or one of the things of this kind, which we say are
substances if anything is-all things produced either by nature or by
art have matter; for each of them is capable both of being and of
not being, and this capacity is the matter in each-and, in general,
both that from which they are produced is nature, and the type
according to which they are produced is nature (for that which is
produced, e.
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