Note 67 — Chapter V · LOGIC OF THE STOICS.

(α) Highest Conception—an indefinite Something. The highest conception of all was apparently by the older Stoics declared to be the conception of Being. Since, however, speaking strictly, only what is material can be said to have any being, and many of our notions refer to incorporeal and therefore unreal objects, the conception of Something67 was in later times put in the place of the conception of Being. This indefinite Something comprehends alike what is material and what is not material—in other words, what has being and what has not being; and the Stoics appear to have made this contrast the basis of a real division of things.68 When it becomes a question, however, of formal elementary conceptions or categories, other points are emphasised which have no connection with the division into things material and things not material. Of this kind are the four highest conceptions,69—all subordinate to the conception of Something, viz. subject-matter or substance (τὸ ὑποκείμενον) property or form (τὸ ποιὸν), variety (τὸ πὼς ἔχον), and variety of relation (τὸ πρός τί πως ἔχον).70