Kitap 10
6
Clearly of colors. And unity would be some one color, e.g. white. Similarly if all existing things were tunes, there would be a number—of quarter-tones; but their substance would not be a number; and unity would be something whose substance is not unity but a quarter-tone. Similarly in the case of sounds, existing things would be a number of letters, and unity would be a vowel;
7
and if existing things were right-lined figures, they would be a number of figures, and unity would be a triangle. And the same principle holds for all other genera. Therefore if in the categories of passivity and quality and quantity and motion there is in every category a number and a unity, and if the number is of particular things and the unity is a particular unity, and its substance is not unity, then the same must be true in the case of substances, because the same is true in all cases.
8
It is obvious, then, that in every genus one is a definite entity, and that in no case is its nature merely unity; but as in the sphere of colors the One-itself which we have to seek is one color, so too in the sphere of substance the One-itself is one substance.
9
And that in a sense unity means the same as being is clear (a) from the fact that it has a meaning corresponding to each of the categories, and is contained in none of them—e.g., it is contained neither in substance nor in quality, but is related to them exactly as being is; (b) from the fact that in one man nothing more is predicated than in manCf. Aristot. Met. 4.2.6-8.(just as Being too does not exist apart from some thing or quality or quantity); and (c) because to be one is to be a particular thing.
