Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l5/c20

Chapter 20 Having

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English

Habitus vero dicitur uno quidem modo tamquam actio ↵ quaedam habentis et habiti, ut actus quidam aut motus. Nam quando hoc quidem facit illud vero fit, est factio intermedia; sic et habentis uestem et habite uestis est intermedius habitus. Hanc quidem igitur manifestum quod non contingit habere habitum; in infinitum enim uadet, si habiti fuerit ↵ habere habitum. Alio vero modo habitus dispositio dicitur secundum quam bene aut male disponitur dispositum, et aut secundum se aut ad aliud, ut sanitas habitus quidam; dispositio namque talis. Amplius habitus dicitur, si est pars dispositionis talis; quapropter et partium virtus habitus quidam est.

Chapter 20. Having means (1) a kind of activity of the haver and of what he has – something like an action or movement. For when one thing makes and one is made, between them there is a making; so too between him who has a garment and the garment which he has there is a having. This sort of having, then, evidently we cannot have; for the process will go on to infinity, if it is to be possible to have the having of what we have. (2) Having or habit means a disposition according to which that which is disposed is either well or ill disposed, and either in itself or with reference to something else; e.g. health is a habit ; for it is such a disposition. (3) We speak of a habit if there is a portion of such a disposition; and so even the excellence of the parts is a habit of the whole thing.