Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l5/c14

Chapter 14 Quality

Latin	English
Quale dicitur * uno quidem modo differentia substantiae, ut quale quid homo animal quia bipes, equus vero quadrupes, et circulus qualis quaedam figura quia agonion, quasi ↵ differentia secundum substantiam qualitate existente. Uno qui↵dem itaque modo hoc dicitur qualitas differentia substantiae.	Chapter 14. Quality means (1) the differentia of the essence, e.g. man is an animal of a certain quality because he is two-footed, and the horse is so because it is four-footed; and a circle is a figure of particular quality because it is without [20b] angles, – which shows that the essential differentia is a quality. This, then, is one meaning of quality – the differentia of the essence,
Alio vero ut immobilia et mathematica, sicut numeri quales quidam, quemadmodum compositi et non solum ad unum entes sed quorum imitatio superficies et solidum (hii vero sunt quo↵tiens quanti aut quotiens quotiens quanti), et totaliter quod praeter quantitatem existit in substantia; nam substantia cuiuslibet quod semel, ut ipsorum sex non qui bis aut ter sunt sed qui semel; sex enim semel sex.	but (2) there is another sense in which it applies to the unmovable objects of mathematics, the sense in which the numbers have a certain quality, e.g. the composite numbers which are not in one dimension only, but of which the plane and the solid are copies (these are those which have two or three factors); and in general that which exists in the essence of numbers besides quantity is quality; for the essence of each is what it is once, e.g. that of is not what it is twice or thrice, but what it is once; for 6 is once 6.
Amplius quaecumque passiones earum quae moventur substantiarum, ut calor et frigiditas, et ↵ albedo et nigredo, et gravitas et levitas, et quaecumque talia, secundum quae dicuntur mutari corpora permutantium.	(3) All the modifications of substances that move (e.g. heat and cold, whiteness and blackness, heaviness and lightness, and the others of the sort) in virtue of which, when they change, bodies are said to alter.
Amplius secundum virtutem et vitium et omnino bonum et malum.	(4) Quality in respect of virtue and vice, and in general, of evil and good.
Fere itaque secundum duos modos dicetur quale, et horum uno principalissimo. Prima quidem qualitas substantiae diffe↵rentia, huius autem quaedam et quae in numeris qualitas pars; ƿ nam differentia quaedam substantiarum, sed aut non motorum aut non in quantum sunt mota. Haec autem passiones motorum in quantum mota, et motuum differentie. Virtus autem et vitium passionum pars quaedam; differentias enim ostendunt ↵ motus et actus, secundum quos faciunt aut patiuntur bene aut prave quae sunt in motu; possibile namque sic moveri aut agere bonum, quod autem sic et contrarie prauum. Maxime vero bonum et malum significant quale in animatis, et horum ↵ maxime in habentibus proheresim.	Quality, then, seems to have practically two meanings, and one of these is the more proper. The primary quality is the differentia of the essence, and of this the quality in numbers is a part; for it is a differentia of essences, but either not of things that move or not of them qua moving. Secondly, there are the modifications of things that move, qua moving, and the differentiae of movements. Virtue and vice fall among these modifications; for they indicate differentiae of the movement or activity, according to which the things in motion act or are acted on well or badly; for that which can be moved or act in one way is good, and that which can do so in another the contrary way is vicious. Good and evil indicate quality especially in living things, and among these especially in those which have purpose.