For it is not
possible to be in error regarding the question what a thing is, save
in an accidental sense; and the same holds good regarding
non-composite substances (for it is not possible to be in error
about them). And they all exist actually, not potentially; for
otherwise they would have come to be and ceased to be; but, as it
is, being itself does not come to be (nor cease to be); for if it
had done so it would have had to come out of something. About the
things, then, which are essences and actualities, it is not possible
to be in error, but only to know them or not to know them. But we do
inquire what they are, viz. whether they are of such and such a nature
or not.
(b) As regards the 'being' that answers to truth and the
'non-being' that answers to falsity, in one case there is truth if the
subject and the attribute are really combined, and falsity if they are
not combined; in the other case, if the object is existent it exists
in a particular way, and if it does not exist in this way does not
exist at all. And truth means knowing these objects, and falsity
does not exist, nor error, but only ignorance-and not an ignorance
which is like blindness; for blindness is akin to a total absence of
the faculty of thinking.
It is evident also that about unchangeable things there can be
no error in respect of time, if we assume them to be unchangeable.
E.g. if we suppose that the triangle does not change, we shall not
suppose that at one time its angles are equal to two right angles
while at another time they are not (for that would imply change).
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