Categories   

and 'good'. Opposites in the sense of 'privatives' and 'positives'

are' blindness' and 'sight'; in the sense of affirmatives and

negatives, the propositions 'he sits', 'he does not sit'.

(i) Pairs of opposites which fall under the category of relation are

explained by a reference of the one to the other, the reference

being indicated by the preposition 'of' or by some other

preposition. Thus, double is a relative term, for that which is double

is explained as the double of something. Knowledge, again, is the

opposite of the thing known, in the same sense; and the thing known

also is explained by its relation to its opposite, knowledge. For

the thing known is explained as that which is known by something, that

is, by knowledge. Such things, then, as are opposite the one to the

other in the sense of being correlatives are explained by a

reference of the one to the other.

(ii) Pairs of opposites which are contraries are not in any way

interdependent, but are contrary the one to the other. The good is not

spoken of as the good of the had, but as the contrary of the bad,

nor is white spoken of as the white of the black, but as the

contrary of the black. These two types of opposition are therefore

distinct. Those contraries which are such that the subjects in which

they are naturally present, or of which they are predicated, must

necessarily contain either the one or the other of them, have no

intermediate, but those in the case of which no such necessity

obtains, always have an intermediate. Thus disease and health are

naturally present in the body of an animal, and it is necessary that

either the one or the other should be present in the body of an

animal. Odd and even, again, are predicated of number, and it is

necessary that the one or the other should be present in numbers.

Now there is no intermediate between the terms of either of these

two pairs. On the other hand, in those contraries with regard to which

no such necessity obtains, we find an intermediate. Blackness and

whiteness are naturally present in the body, but it is not necessary