Of opposites, contradictories admit of no
middle term; for this is what contradiction is-an opposition, one or
other side of which must attach to anything whatever, i.e. which has
no intermediate. Of other opposites, some are relative, others
privative, others contrary. Of relative terms, those which are not
contrary have no intermediate; the reason is that they are not in
the same genus. For what intermediate could there be between knowledge
and knowable? But between great and small there is one.
(3) If intermediates are in the same genus, as has been shown, and
stand between contraries, they must be composed of these contraries.
For either there will be a genus including the contraries or there
will be none. And if (a) there is to be a genus in such a way that
it is something prior to the contraries, the differentiae which
constituted the contrary species-of-a-genus will be contraries prior
to the species; for species are composed of the genus and the
differentiae. (E.g. if white and black are contraries, and one is a
piercing colour and the other a compressing colour, these
differentiae-'piercing' and 'compressing'-are prior; so that these are
prior contraries of one another.) But, again, the species which differ
contrariwise are the more truly contrary species. And the
other.species, i.e. the intermediates, must be composed of their genus
and their differentiae. (E.g. all colours which are between white
and black must be said to be composed of the genus, i.e. colour, and
certain differentiae.
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