This depends, on the
side of the objects, on their being combined or separated, so that
he who thinks the separated to be separated and the combined to be
combined has the truth, while he whose thought is in a state
contrary to that of the objects is in error. This being so, when is
what is called truth or falsity present, and when is it not? We must
consider what we mean by these terms. It is not because we think truly
that you are pale, that you are pale, but because you are pale we
who say this have the truth. If, then, some things are always combined
and cannot be separated, and others are always separated and cannot be
combined, while others are capable either of combination or of
separation, 'being' is being combined and one, and 'not being' is
being not combined but more than one. Regarding contingent facts,
then, the same opinion or the same statement comes to be false and
true, and it is possible for it to be at one time correct and at
another erroneous; but regarding things that cannot be otherwise
opinions are not at one time true and at another false, but the same
opinions are always true or always false.
But with regard to incomposites, what is being or not being, and
truth or falsity? A thing of this sort is not composite, so as to 'be'
when it is compounded, and not to 'be' if it is separated, like
'that the wood is white' or 'that the diagonal is incommensurable';
nor will truth and falsity be still present in the same way as in
the previous cases. In fact, as truth is not the same in these
cases, so also being is not the same; but (a) truth or falsity is as
follows--contact and assertion are truth (assertion not being the same
as affirmation), and ignorance is non-contact.
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