下载辰思小说免费APP
THEREareseveralsensesinwhichathingmaybesaidto’be’，
aswepointedoutpreviouslyinourbookonthevarioussensesof
words；’forinonesensethe’being’meantis’whatathingis’ora
’this’，andinanothersenseitmeansaqualityorquantityorone
oftheotherthingsthatarepredicatedastheseare。While’being’
hasallthesesenses，obviouslythatwhich’is’primarilyisthe
’what’，whichindicatesthesubstanceofthething。Forwhenwesayof
whatqualityathingis，wesaythatitisgoodorbad，notthatitis
threecubitslongorthatitisaman；butwhenwesaywhatitis，
wedonotsay’white’or’hot’or’threecubitslong’，but’aman’
or’a’god’。Andallotherthingsaresaidtobebecausetheyare，
someofthem，quantitiesofthatwhichisinthisprimarysense，
othersqualitiesofit，othersaffectionsofit，andotherssomeother
determinationofit。Andsoonemightevenraisethequestion
whetherthewords’towalk’，’tobehealthy’，’tosit’implythateach
ofthesethingsisexistent，andsimilarlyinanyothercaseofthis
sort；fornoneofthemiseitherself-subsistentorcapableofbeing
separatedfromsubstance，butrather，ifanything，itisthatwhich
walksorsitsorishealthythatisanexistentthing。Nowtheseare
seentobemorerealbecausethereissomethingdefinitewhich
underliesthem(i。e。thesubstanceorindividual)，whichisimpliedin
suchapredicate；forweneverusetheword’good’or’sitting’
withoutimplyingthis。Clearlythenitisinvirtueofthiscategory
thateachoftheothersalsois。Thereforethatwhichisprimarily，
i。e。notinaqualifiedsensebutwithoutqualification，mustbe
substance。
Nowthereareseveralsensesinwhichathingissaidtobefirst；
yetsubstanceisfirstineverysense-(1)indefinition，(2)in
orderofknowledge，(3)intime。For(3)oftheothercategories
nonecanexistindependently，butonlysubstance。And(1)in
definitionalsothisisfirst；forinthedefinitionofeachterm
thedefinitionofitssubstancemustbepresent。And(2)wethinkwe
knoweachthingmostfully，whenweknowwhatitis，e。g。whatman
isorwhatfireis，ratherthanwhenweknowitsquality，its
quantity，oritsplace；sinceweknoweachofthesepredicatesalso，
onlywhenweknowwhatthequantityorthequalityis。
Andindeedthequestionwhichwasraisedofoldandisraised
nowandalways，andisalwaysthesubjectofdoubt，viz。whatbeing
is，isjustthequestion，whatissubstance？Foritisthisthat
someasserttobeone，othersmorethanone，andthatsomeassertto
belimitedinnumber，othersunlimited。Andsowealsomustconsider
chieflyandprimarilyandalmostexclusivelywhatthatiswhichis
inthissense。
Substanceisthoughttobelongmostobviouslytobodies；andsowe
saythatnotonlyanimalsandplantsandtheirpartsaresubstances，
butalsonaturalbodiessuchasfireandwaterandearthand
everythingofthesort，andallthingsthatareeitherpartsof
theseorcomposedofthese(eitherofpartsorofthewholebodies)，
e。g。thephysicaluniverseanditsparts，starsandmoonandsun。
Butwhetherthesealonearesubstances，ortherearealsoothers，or
onlysomeofthese，orothersaswell，ornoneofthesebutonly
someotherthings，aresubstances，mustbeconsidered。Somethink
thelimitsofbody，i。e。surface，line，point，andunit，are
substances，andmoresothanbodyorthesolid。
Further，somedonotthinkthereisanythingsubstantialbesides
sensiblethings，butothersthinkthereareeternalsubstanceswhich
aremoreinnumberandmorereal；e。g。Platopositedtwokindsof
substance-theFormsandobjectsofmathematics-aswellasathird
kind，viz。thesubstanceofsensiblebodies。AndSpeusippusmadestill
morekindsofsubstance，beginningwiththeOne，andassuming
principlesforeachkindofsubstance，onefornumbers，anotherfor
spatialmagnitudes，andthenanotherfortheso
