1052aThat “one” has several meanings has been already stated¹ in our distinction of the various meanings of terms. But although it has a number of senses, the things which are primarily and essentially called one, and not in an accidental sense, may be summarized under four heads: (1.) That which is continuous, either absolutely or in particular that which is continuous by natural growth and not by contact or ligature; and of these things those are more strictly and in a prior sense one whose motion is more simple and indivisible. (2.) Of this kind in a still higher degree is that which is a whole and has a definite shape or form, particularly that which is such by nature and not by constraint (like things which are joined by glue or nails or by being tied together), but which contains in itself the cause of its continuity. A thing is of this kind if its motion is one and indivisible in respect of place and time; so that clearly if a thing has as its principle of motion the primary kind of motion (i.e. locomotion) in its primary form (i.e. circular locomotion), it is in the primary sense one spatial magnitude.² Some things, then, are one in this sense, qua continuous or whole; the other things which are one are those whose formula is one. Such are the things of which the concept is one, i.e. of which the concept is indivisible; and this is indivisible when the object is indivisible (3.) in form or (4.) in number. Now in number the individual is indivisible, and in form that which is indivisible in comprehension and knowledge; so that that which causes the unity of substances must be one in the primary sense. Such, then, in number are the meanings of “one”: the naturally continuous, the whole, the individual, and the universal. All these are one because they are indivisible; some in motion, and others in concept or formula. 1052bBut we must recognize that the questions, “What sort of things are called one?” and “What is essential unity, and what is the formula?” must not be taken to be the same. “One” has these several meanings, and each thing to which some one of these senses applies will be one; but essential unity will have now one of these senses and now something else, which is still nearer to the term one, whereas they are nearer to its denotation . This is also true of “element” and “cause,” supposing that one had to explain them both by exhibiting concrete examples and by giving a definition of the term. There is a sense in which fire is an element (and no doubt so too is “the indeterminate”³ or some other similar thing, of its own nature), and there is a sense in which it is not; because “to be fire” and “to be an element” are not the same. It is as a concrete thing and as a stuff that fire is an element; but the term “element” denotes that it has this attribute: that something is made of it as a primary constituent. The same is true of “cause” or “one” and all other such terms. Hence “to be one” means “to be indivisible” (being essentially a particular thing, distinct and separate in place or form or thought), or “to be whole and indivisible”; but especially “to be the first measure of each kind,” and above all of quantity; for it is from this that it has been extended to the other categories. Measure is that by which quantity is known, and quantity qua quantity is known either by unity or by number, and all number is known by unity. Therefore all quantity qua quantity is known by unity, and that by which quantities are primarily known is absolute unity. Thus unity is the starting point of number qua number. Hence in other cases too “measure” means that by which each thing is primarily known, and the measure of each thing is a unit—in length, breadth, depth, weight and speed. (The terms “weight” and “speed” are common to both contraries, for each of them has a double meaning; e.g., “weight” applies to that which has the least amount of gravity and also to that which has excess of it, and speed to that which has the least amount of motion and also to that which has excess of it; for even the slow has some speed, and the light some weight.) In all these cases, then, the measure and starting-point is some indivisible unit (since even in the case of lines we treat the “one-foot line” as indivisible). For everywhere we require as our measure an indivisible unit; i.e., that which is simple either in quality or in quantity. Now where it seems impossible to take away or add, there the measure is exact. 1053aHence the measure of number is most exact, for we posit the unit as in every way indivisible; and in all other cases we follow this example, for with the furlong or talent or in general with the greater measure an addition or subtraction would be less obvious than with a smaller one. Therefore the first thing from which, according to our perception, nothing can be subtracted is used by all men as their measure of wet and dry, weight and magnitude; and they think that they know the quantity only when they know it in terms of this measure. And they know motion too by simple motion and the most rapid, for this takes least time. Hence in astronomy a unit of this kind is the starting point and measure; for they assume that the motion of the heavens is uniform and the most rapid, and by it they judge the others. In music the measure is the quarter tone, because it is the smallest interval; and in language the letter. All these are examples of units in this sense—not in the sense that unity is something common to them all, but in the sense which we have described. The measure is not always numerically one, but sometimes more than one; e.g., there are two quarter tones, distinguished not by our hearing but by their theoretical ratios⁴; and the articulate sounds by which we measure speech are more than one; and the diagonal of a square is measured by two quantities,⁵ and so are all magnitudes of this kind. Thus unity is the measure of all things, because we learn of what the substance is composed by dividing it, in respect of either quantity or form. Hence unity is indivisible, because that which is primary in each class of things is indivisible. But not every unit is indivisible in the same sense—e.g. the foot and the arithmetical unit; but the latter is absolutely indivisible, and the former must be classed as indivisible with respect to our power of perception, as we have already stated; since presumably everything which is continuous is divisible. The measure is always akin to the thing measured. The measure of magnitude is magnitude, and in particular the measure of length is a length; of breadth, a breadth; of sounds, a sound; of weight, a weight; of units, a unit; for this is the view that we must take, and not that the measure of numbers is a number. The latter, indeed, would necessarily be true, if the analogy held good; but the supposition is not analogous—it is as though one were to suppose that the measure of units is units, and not a unit; for number is a plurality of units. We also speak of knowledge or sense perception as a measure of things for the same reason, because through them we come to know something; whereas really they are measured themselves rather than measure other things. But our experience is as though someone else measured us, and we learned our height by noticing to what extent he applied his foot-rule to us. Protagoras says that “man is the measure of all things,” meaning, as it were, the scholar or the man of perception; 1053band these because they possess, the one knowledge, and the other perception, which we hold to be the measures of objects. Thus, while appearing to say something exceptional, he is really saying nothing.⁶ Obviously, then, unity in the strictest sense, if we make our definition in accordance with the meaning of the term, is a measure; particularly of quantity, and secondarily of quality. Some things will be of this kind if they are indivisible in quantity, and others if in quality. Therefore that which is one is indivisible, either absolutely or qua one.

We must inquire, with regard to the substance and nature of unity, in which sense it exists. This is the same question which we approached in our discussion of difficulties⁷: what unity is, and what view we are to take of it; whether that unity itself is a kind of substance—as first the Pythagoreans, and later Plato, both maintain—or whether rather some nature underlies it, and we should give a more intelligible account of it, and more after the manner of the physicists; for of them one⁸ holds that the One is Love, another⁹ Air, and another¹⁰ the Indeterminate. Now if no universal can be a substance (as we have stated in our discussion¹¹ of substance and being), and being itself cannot be a substance in the sense of one thing existing alongside the many (since it is common to them), but only as a predicate, then clearly neither can unity be a substance; because being and unity are the most universal of all predicates. Therefore (a) genera are not certain entities and substances separate from other things; and (b) unity cannot be a genus, for the same reasons that being and substance cannot.¹² Further, the nature of unity must be the same for all categories. Now being and unity have the same number of meanings; so that since in the category of qualities unity is something definite, i.e. some definite entity, and similarly in the category of quantity, clearly we must also inquire in general what unity is, just as in the case of being; since it is not enough to say that its nature is simply unity or being. But in the sphere of colors unity is a color, e.g. white; that is if all the other colors are apparently derived from white and black, and black is a privation of white, as darkness is of light. Thus if all existing things were colors, all existing things would be a number; but of what? 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. 1054aSimilarly in the case of sounds, existing things would be a number of letters, and unity would be a vowel; 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. 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. 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 “man”¹³(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.”