Note 71 — Chapter XXVII · PARMENIDES.

Aristot. Metaphys. iv. 1015-1017, ix. 1052, a. 15; Anal. Poster. ii. p. 92, b. 14. τὸ δ’ εἶναι οὐκ οὐσία οὐδενί. οὐ γὰρ γένος τὸ ὄν. — Topica, iv. p. 127, a. 28. πλείω γὰρ τὰ πᾶσιν ἑπόμενα· οἷον τὸ ὂν καὶ τὸ ἓν τῶν πᾶσιν ἑπομένων ἔστιν, Physica, i. p. 185, b. 6.

Simplikius noted it as one among the differences between Plato and Aristotle — That Plato admitted Unum as having only one meaning, not being aware of the diversity of meanings which it bore; while Aristotle expressly pointed it out as a πολλακῶς λεγόμενον (Schol. ad Aristot. Sophist. Elench. p. 320, b. 3, Brandis). Aristotle farther remarks that Plato considered τὸ γένος as ἓν ἀριθμῷ, and that this was an error; we ought rather to say that Plato did not clearly discriminate ἓν ἀριθμῷ from ἓν εἴδει (Aristot. Topic. vi. 143, b. 30).

Simplikius farther remarks, that it was Aristotle who first rendered to Logic the important service of bringing out clearly and emphatically the idea of τὸ ὁμώνυμον — the same word with several meanings either totally distinct and disparate, or ramifying in different directions from the same root, so that there came to be little or no affinity between many of them. It was Aristotle who first classified and named these distinctions (συνώνυμον — ὁμώνυμον, and the intermediate κατ’ ἀναλογίαν), though they had been partially noticed by Plato and even by Sokrates. ἕως Ἀριστοτέλους οὐ πάμπαν ἔκδηλον ἦν τὸ ὁμώνυμον· ἀλλὰ Πλάτων τε ἤρξατο περὶ τούτου ἢ μᾶλλον ἐκείνου Σωκράτης, Schol. ad Aristot. Physic. p. 323, b. 24, Brandis.