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Aristotle - Metaphysics
Atec Февраль 16 2008 19:57:08
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. And so, of the people who go in for defining, those who
define a house as stones, bricks, and timbers are speaking of the
potential house, for these are the matter; but those who propose 'a
receptacle to shelter chattels and living beings', or something of the
sort, speak of the actuality. Those who combine both of these speak of
the third kind of substance, which is composed of matter and form (for
the formula that gives the differentiae seems to be an account of
the form or actuality, while that which gives the components is rather
an account of the matter); and the same is true of the kind of
definitions which Archytas used to accept; they are accounts of the
combined form and matter. E.g. what is still weather? Absence of
motion in a large expanse of air; air is the matter, and absence of
motion is the actuality and substance. What is a calm? Smoothness of
sea; the material substratum is the sea, and the actuality or shape is
smoothness. It is obvious then, from what has been said, what sensible
substance is and how it exists-one kind of it as matter, another as
form or actuality, while the third kind is that which is composed of
these two.
3
We must not fail to notice that sometimes it is not clear
whether a name means the composite substance, or the actuality or
form, e.g. whether 'house' is a sign for the composite thing, 'a
covering consisting of bricks and stones laid thus and thus', or for
the actuality or form, 'a covering', and whether a line is 'twoness in
length' or 'twoness', and whether an animal is soul in a body' or 'a
soul'; for soul is the substance or actuality of some body
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