Categories   

all cases, the name of that which is qualified is derived from that of

the quality. Thus the terms 'whiteness', 'grammar', 'justice', give us

the adjectives 'white', 'grammatical', 'just', and so on.

There are some cases, however, in which, as the quality under

consideration has no name, it is impossible that those possessed of it

should have a name that is derivative. For instance, the name given to

the runner or boxer, who is so called in virtue of an inborn capacity,

is not derived from that of any quality; for lob those capacities have

no name assigned to them. In this, the inborn capacity is distinct

from the science, with reference to which men are called, e.g.

boxers or wrestlers. Such a science is classed as a disposition; it

has a name, and is called 'boxing' or 'wrestling' as the case may

be, and the name given to those disposed in this way is derived from

that of the science. Sometimes, even though a name exists for the

quality, that which takes its character from the quality has a name

that is not a derivative. For instance, the upright man takes his

character from the possession of the quality of integrity, but the

name given him is not derived from the word 'integrity'. Yet this does

not occur often.

We may therefore state that those things are said to be possessed of

some specific quality which have a name derived from that of the

aforesaid quality, or which are in some other way dependent on it.

One quality may be the contrary of another; thus justice is the

contrary of injustice, whiteness of blackness, and so on. The

things, also, which are said to be such and such in virtue of these

qualities, may be contrary the one to the other; for that which is

unjust is contrary to that which is just, that which is white to

that which is black. This, however, is not always the case. Red,

yellow, and such colours, though qualities, have no contraries.

If one of two contraries is a quality, the other will also be a

quality. This will be evident from particular instances, if we apply

the names