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falsity。Thisisalsowhyitusedtobesaidthatwemustassume
somethingthatisfalse，asgeometersassumethelinewhichisnota
footlongtobeafootlong。Butthiscannotbeso。Forneitherdo
geometersassumeanythingfalse(fortheenunciationisextraneous
totheinference)，norisitnon-beinginthissensethatthethings
thatarearegeneratedfromorresolvedinto。Butsince’non-being’
takeninitsvariouscaseshasasmanysensesastherearecategories，
andbesidesthisthefalseissaidnottobe，andsoisthepotential，
itisfromthisthatgenerationproceeds，manfromthatwhichisnot
manbutpotentiallyman，andwhitefromthatwhichisnotwhitebut
potentiallywhite，andthiswhetheritissomeonethingthatis
generatedormany。
Thequestionevidentlyis，howbeing，inthesenseof’the
substances’，ismany；forthethingsthataregeneratedarenumbers
andlinesandbodies。Nowitisstrangetoinquirehowbeinginthe
senseofthe’what’ismany，andnothoweitherqualitiesor
quantitiesaremany。Forsurelytheindefinitedyador’thegreat
andthesmall’isnotareasonwhythereshouldbetwokindsof
whiteormanycoloursorflavoursorshapes；forthenthesealsowould
benumbersandunits。Butiftheyhadattackedtheseothercategories，
theywouldhaveseenthecauseofthepluralityinsubstancesalso；
forthesamethingorsomethinganalogousisthecause。This
aberrationisthereasonalsowhyinseekingtheoppositeofbeingand
theone，fromwhichwithbeingandtheonethethingsthatare
proceed，theypositedtherelativeterm(i。e。theunequal)，whichis
neitherthecontrarynorthecontradictoryofthese，andisonekind
ofbeingas’what’andqualityalsoare。
Theyshouldhaveaskedthisquestionalso，howrelativeterms
aremanyandnotone。Butasitis，theyinquirehowtherearemany
unitsbesidesthefirst1，butdonotgoontoinquirehowthereare
manyunequalsbesidestheunequal。Yettheyusethemandspeakof
greatandsmall，manyandfew(fromwhichproceednumbers)，longand
short(fromwhichproceedstheline)，broadandnarrow(fromwhich
proceedstheplane)，deepandshallow(fromwhichproceedsolids)；and
theyspeakofyetmorekindsofrelativeterm。Whatisthereason，
then，whythereisapluralityofthese？
Itisnecessary，then，aswesay，topresupposeforeachthing
thatwhichisitpotentially；andtheholderoftheseviewsfurther
declaredwhatthatiswhichispotentiallya’this’andasubstance
butisnotinitselfbeing-viz。thatitistherelative(asifhe
hadsaid’thequalitative’)，whichisneitherpotentiallytheoneor
being，northenegationoftheonenorofbeing，butoneamongbeings。
Anditwasmuchmorenecessary，aswesaid，ifhewasinquiringhow
beingsaremany，nottoinquireaboutthoseinthesamecategory-how
therearemanysubstancesormanyqualities-buthowbeingsasa
wholearemany；forsomearesubstances，somemodifications，some
relations。Inthecategoriesotherthansubstancethereisyetanother
probleminvolvedintheexistenceofplurality。Sincetheyarenot
separablefromsubstances，qualitiesandquantitiesaremanyjust
becausetheirsubstratumbecomesandismany；yetthereoughttobe
amatterforeachcategory；onlyitcannotbeseparablefrom
substances。Butinthecaseof’thises’，itispossibletoexplainhow
the’this’ismanythings，unlessathingistobetreatedasbotha
’this’andageneralcharacter。Thedifficultyarisingfromthe
factsaboutsubstancesisratherthis，howthereareactuallymany
substancesandnotone。
Butfurther，ifthe’this’andthequantitativearenotthe
same，wearenottoldhowandwhythethingsthatarearemany，but
howquantitiesaremany。Forall’number’meansaquantity，andso
doesthe’unit’，unlessitmeansameasureorthequantitatively
indivisible。If，then，thequantitativeandthe’what’are
different，wearenottoldwhenceorhowthe’what’ismany；butif
anyonesaystheyarethesame，hehastofacemanyinconsistencies。
Onemightfixone’satten
