Kitap 11
11
But essence depends upon quality, and this is of a determinate, whereas quantity is of an indeterminate nature.
11
Again, when the doctor orders them to adopt some article of diet, why do they adopt it?Cf. Aristot. Met. 4.4.39-42. For on their view it is no more true that a thing is bread than that it is not; and therefore it would make no difference whether they ate it or not. But as it is, they adopt a particular food as though they knew the truth about it and it were the food prescribed;
12
yet they ought not to do so if there were no fixed and permanent nature in sensible things and everything were always in a state of motion and flux.
12
Again, if we are always changing and never remain the same, is it any wonder that to us, as to the diseased, things never appear the same?With this section cf. Aristot. Met. 4.5.7-14.
13
For to the diseased, since they are not in the same physical condition as when they were well, sensible qualities do not appear to be the same; although this does not mean that the sensible things themselves partake of any change, but that they cause different, and not the same, sensations in the diseased. Doubtless the same must be true if the change which we have referred to takes place in us.
14
If, however, we do not change but remain always the same, there must be something permanent.
14
As for those who raise the aforesaid difficulties on dialectical grounds,With this section cf. Aristot. Met. 4.5.3, 4, Aristot. Met. 4.6.1-3. it is not easy to find a solution which will convince them unless they grant some assumption for which they no longer require an explanation; for every argument and proof is possible only in this way. If they grant no assumption, they destroy discussion and reasoning in general.
15
Thus there is no arguing with people of this kind; but in the case of those who are perplexed by the traditional difficulties it is easy to meet and refute the causes of their perplexity. This is evident from what has been already said.
