Note 109 — II.

Topic. II. viii. p. 113, a. 24-32: ἢ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον εἴρηται κατά τινος, οὗ ὄντος ἀνάγκη τὰ ἐναντία ὑπάρχειν· οἷον εἰ τὰς ἰδέας ἐν ἡμῖν ἔφησεν εἶναι· κινεῖσθαί τε γὰρ καὶ ἠρεμεῖν αὐτὰς συμβήσεται, ἔτι δὲ αἰσθητὰς καὶ νοητὰς εἶναι. Aristotle then proceeds to state how this consequence arises. Those who affirm the Platonic Ideas, assign to them as fundamental characteristic, that they are at rest and cogitable. But, if the Ideas exist in us, they must be moveable, because we are moved; they must also be perceivable by sense, because it is through vision only that we discriminate and know differences of form. Waitz observes (in regard to the last pair, καὶ αἰσθηταί): “Nam singulæ ideæ certam quandam rerum speciem et formam exprimunt: species autem et forma oculis cernitur.” I do not clearly see, however, that this is a consequence of affirming Ideas to be ἐν ἡμῖν; it is equally true if they are not ἐν ἡμῖν.