1022b“Disposition” means arrangement of that which has parts, either in space or in potentiality or in form. It must be a kind of position, as indeed is clear from the word, “disposition.”

“Having”¹ means (a) In one sense an activity, as it were, of the haver and the thing had, or as in the case of an action or motion; for when one thing makes and another is made, there is between them an act of making. In this way between the man who has a garment and the garment which is had, there is a “having.” Clearly, then, it is impossible to have a “having” in this sense; for there will be an infinite series if we can have the having of what we have. But (b) there is another sense of “having” which means a disposition, in virtue of which the thing which is disposed is disposed well or badly, and either independently or in relation to something else. E.g., health is a state, since it is a disposition of the kind described. Further, any part of such a disposition is called a state; and hence the excellence of the parts is a kind of state.

“Affection” means (a) In one sense, a quality in virtue of which alteration is possible; e.g., whiteness and blackness, sweetness and bitterness, heaviness and lightness, etc. (b) The actualizations of these qualities; i.e. the alterations already realized. (c) More particularly, hurtful alterations and motions, and especially hurts which cause suffering. (d) Extreme cases of misfortune and suffering are called “affections.” ²

We speak of “privation”: (a) In one sense, if a thing does not possess an attribute which is a natural possession, even if the thing itself would not naturally possess it³; e.g., we say that a vegetable is “deprived” of eyes. (b) If a thing does not possess an attribute which it or its genus would naturally possess. E.g., a blind man is not “deprived” of sight in the same sense that a mole is; the latter is “deprived” in virtue of its genus, but the former in virtue of himself.⁴ (c) If a thing has not an attribute which it would naturally possess, and when it would naturally possess it (for blindness is a form of privation; but a man is not blind at any age, but only if he lacks sight at the age when he would naturally possess it⁵), and similarly if it⁶ lacks an attribute in the medium and organ and relation and manner in which it would naturally possess it. (d) The forcible removal of anything is called privation. (e) Privation has as many senses as there are senses of negation derived from the negative affix (ἀ-). For we call a thing “unequal” because it does not possess equality (though it would naturally do so); and “invisible” either because it has no color at all or because it has only a faint one; and “footless” either because it has no feet at all or because it has rudimentary feet. Again, a negative affix may mean “having something in a small degree”—e.g. “stoneless”— 1023athat is, having it in some rudimentary manner. Again, it may mean having it “not easily” or “not well”; e.g., “uncutable” means not only that which cannot be cut, but that which cannot be cut easily or well. And again, it may mean not having a thing at all; for it is not the one-eyed man, but the man who lacks sight in both eyes, who is called blind. Hence not every man is good or bad, moral or immoral; there is also the intermediate state.

“To have” 〈or “possess”〉 is used in various senses. (a) To direct in accordance with one’s own nature or impulse; whence we say that fever “possesses” a man, and despots “possess” cities, and people who wear clothes “possess” them. (b) We speak of anything as “having” in which, as receptive material, something is present. E.g., the bronze “has” the shape of the statue, and the body “has” the disease. (c) In the sense that the container holds the contained; for when A is contained in B, we say that A is held by B. E.g., we say that the vessel holds the liquid, and the city holds men, and the ship holds sailors, and so too that the whole “holds” the parts. (d) The same term is applied to that which prevents anything from moving or acting in accordance with its own impulse; as pillars hold 〈up〉 the weights which are imposed upon them, and as the poets make Atlas⁷ hold up the heaven, because otherwise it would fall upon the earth (as some of the physicists⁸ maintain also). It is in this sense that we say that “that which holds together” holds what it holds together; because otherwise the latter would disperse, each part in accordance with its own impulse. “To be in a thing” is used similarly in senses corresponding to those of “to have.”

“To come from something” means: (a) In one sense, to come from something as matter, and this in two ways: in respect either of the primary genus or of the ultimate species. E.g., in the one sense everything liquefiable comes from water, and in the other the statue comes from bronze. (b) To come from something as the first moving principle; e.g., “from what comes fighting?” From abuse; because this is the beginning of a fight. (c) To come from the combination of matter and form (as the parts come from the whole, and the verse from the Iliad, and the stones from the house); for the shape is an end, and that is a complete thing which has attained its end. (d) In the sense that the form is made out of the part of its definition; as, e.g., “man” is made out of “two-footed” and the syllable out of its element⁹(this is a different way from that in which the statue is made out of the bronze; 1023bfor the composite entity is made out of perceptible material, but the form is also made out of the material of the form). These, then, are some of the meanings of “from” 〈or “out of”〉, but (e) sometimes one of these senses only partially applies; e.g., the child comes from the father and mother, and plants from the earth, because they come from some part of those things. (f) It means “after” in time; e.g., we say that night comes from day, and storm from fine weather, because one comes after the other. And we speak thus of some of these things in view of their alternation with each other, as in the examples just mentioned, and of others in view merely of their succession in time; e.g., “the voyage was made from the equinox,” meaning that it was made after it; and “the Thargelia are from the Dionysia,” meaning after the Dionysia.¹⁰

“Part” means: (a) That into which a quantity can be in any way divided; for that which is taken from a quantity qua quantity is always called a part of that quantity—e.g., we call 2 part (in a sense) of 3. (b) In another sense the term is only applied to those “parts” in sense (a) which measure the whole; hence in one sense we call 2 part of 3, and in another not. Again, (c) those divisions into which the form, apart from quantity, can be divided, are also called parts of the form. Hence species are called parts of their genus. (d) That into which the whole (either the form or that which contains the form) is divided, or of which it is composed. E.g., of a bronze sphere or cube not only is the bronze (i.e. the material which contains the form) a part, but also the angle. (e) The elements in the definition of each thing are also called parts of the whole. Hence the genus is even called a part of the species, whereas in another sense the species is part of the genus.

“Whole” means: (a) That from which no part is lacking of those things as composed of which it is called a natural whole. (b) That which so contains its contents that they form a unity; and this in two ways, either in the sense that each of them is a unity, or in the sense that the unity is composed of them. For (i) the universal, or term generally applied as being some whole thing, is universal in the sense that it contains many particulars; because it is predicated of each of them, and each and all of them (e.g. man, horse, god) are one; because they are all living things. And (2) that which is continuous and limited is a whole when it is a unity composed of several parts (especially if the parts are only potentially present in it; but otherwise even if they are present actually). And of these things themselves, those which are so naturally are more truly wholes than those which are so artificially; just as we said of “the one,” because “wholeness” is a kind of “oneness.” 1024aAgain, since a quantity has a beginning, middle and end, those to which position makes no difference we describe as “all,” and those to which position makes a difference we describe as “whole,” and those to which both descriptions can be applied, as both “all” and “whole.” These are all things whose nature remains the same in transposition, but whose shape does not; e.g. wax or a coat. They are described as both “whole” and “all”; for they have both characteristics. Water, however, and all liquids, and number, are described as “all”; we do not speak of a “whole number” or “whole water” except by an extension of meaning. Things are described as “all” in the plural qua differentiated which are described as “all” in the singular qua one; all this number, all these units.