And the same must surely happen to the healthy if the
afore-said change takes place.) But if we do not change but remain the
same, there will be something that endures.
As for those to whom the difficulties mentioned are suggested by
reasoning, it is not easy to solve the difficulties to their
satisfaction, unless they will posit something and no longer demand
a reason for it; for it is only thus that all reasoning and all
proof is accomplished; if they posit nothing, they destroy
discussion and all reasoning. Therefore with such men there is no
reasoning. But as for those who are perplexed by the traditional
difficulties, it is easy to meet them and to dissipate the causes of
their perplexity. This is evident from what has been said.
It is manifest, therefore, from these arguments that contradictory
statements cannot be truly made about the same subject at one time,
nor can contrary statements, because every contrariety depends on
privation. This is evident if we reduce the definitions of
contraries to their principle.
Similarly, no intermediate between contraries can be predicated of
one and the same subject, of which one of the contraries is
predicated. If the subject is white we shall be wrong in saying it
is neither black nor white, for then it follows that it is and is
not white; for the second of the two terms we have put together is
true of it, and this is the contradictory of white.
We could not be right, then, in accepting the views either of
Heraclitus or of Anaxagoras.
Pages:
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291