Book 5
4
(e) In respect of order; such are all things which are systematically arranged in relation to some one determinate object. E.g., he who is next to the leader of the chorus is prior to him who is next but one, and the seventh string is prior to the eighthThe octachord to which Aristotle refers was composed of the following notes: E (ὑπάτη ) F (παρυπάτη) G (λιχανός) A (μέση) B (παραμέση) C (τρίτη) D (παρανήτη) E (νήτη).; for in one case the leader is the starting-point, and in the other the middleStrictly speaking there was no middle string in the octachord; the name was taken over from the earlier heptachord EFGABbCD, in which there was no παραμέση. The μέση was apparently what we should call the tonic. Cf. Aristot. Met. 14.6.5; Aristot. Problemata 919b 20. string.
5
In these examples prior has this sense; but (2.) in another sense that which is prior in knowledge is treated as absolutely prior; and of things which are prior in this sense the prior in formula are different from the prior in perception . Universals are prior in formula, but particulars in perception. And in formula the attribute is prior to the concrete whole: e.g. cultured to the cultured man; for the formula will not be a whole without the part.
6
Yet cultured cannot exist apart from some cultured person.
6
Again, (3.) attributes of prior subjects are called prior; e.g., straightness is prior to smoothness, because the former is an attribute of the line in itself, and the latter of a surface.
7
Some things, then, are called prior and posterior in this sense; but others (iv.) in virtue of their nature and substance, namely all things which can exist apart from other things, whereas other things cannot exist without them. This distinction was used by Plato.Not, apparently, in his writings.(And since being has various meanings, (a) the substrate, and therefore substance, is prior; (b) potential priority is different from actual priority.
