On Interpretation

Aristotle
Translated by E. M. Edghill

Section 1
Part 1
First we must define the terms ’noun’ and ’verb’, then the
terms ’denial’ and ’affirmation’, then ’proposition’ and ’sentence.’
Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience and writ-
ten words are the symbols of spoken words. Just as all men have
not the same writing, so all men have not the same speech sounds,
but the mental experiences, which these directly symbolize, are
the same for all, as also are those things of which our experiences
are the images. This matter has, however, been discussed in my
treatise about the soul, for it belongs to an investigation distinct
from that which lies before us.
As there are in the mind thoughts which do not involve truth or
falsity, and also those which must be either true or false, so it is in
speech. For truth and falsity imply combination and separation.
Nouns and verbs, provided nothing is added, are like thoughts
without combination or separation; ’man’ and ’white’, as isolated
terms, are not yet either true or false. In proof of this, consider
the word ’goat-stag.’ It has significance, but there is no truth or
falsity about it, unless ’is’ or ’is not’ is added, either in the present
or in some other tense.
2 Aristotle

Part 2
By a noun we mean a sound significant by convention, which
has no reference to time, and of which no part is significant apart
from the rest. In the noun ’Fairsteed,’ the part ’steed’ has no si-
gnificance in and by itself, as in the phrase ’fair steed.’ Yet there
is a difference between simple and composite nouns; for in the
former the part is in no way significant, in the latter it contributes
to the meaning of the whole, although it has not an independent
meaning. Thus in the word ’pirate-boat’ the word ’boat’ has no
meaning except as part of the whole word.
The limitation ’by convention’ was introduced because nothing
is by nature a noun or name-it is only so when it becomes a sym-
bol; inarticulate sounds, such as those which brutes produce, are
significant, yet none of these constitutes a noun.
The expression ’not-man’ is not a noun. There is indeed no
recognized term by which we may denote such an expression, for
it is not a sentence or a denial. Let it then be called an indefinite
noun. The expressions ’of Philo’, ’to Philo’, and so on, constitute
not nouns, but cases of a noun. The definition of these cases of
a noun is in other respects the same as that of the noun proper,
but, when coupled with ’is’, ’was’, or will be’, they do not, as
they are, form a proposition either true or false, and this the noun
proper always does, under these conditions. Take the words ’of
Philo is’ or ’of or ’of Philo is not’; these words do not, as they
stand, form either a true or a false proposition.

Part 3
A verb is that which, in addition to its proper meaning, car-
ries with it the notion of time. No part of it has any independent
meaning, and it is a sign of something said of something else.
I will explain what I mean by saying that it carries with it the
notion of time. ’Health’ is a noun, but ’is healthy’ is a verb; for
besides its proper meaning it indicates the present existence of the
state in question.

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On Interpretation 3

Moreover, a verb is always a sign of something said of so-

mething else, i.e. of something either predicable of or present in
some other thing.
Such expressions as ’is not-healthy’, ’is not, ill’, I do not de-
scribe as verbs; for though they carry the additional note of time,
and always form a predicate, there is no specified name for this
variety; but let them be called indefinite verbs, since they apply
equally well to that which exists and to that which does not.
Similarly ’he was healthy’, ’he will be healthy’, are not verbs,
but tenses of a verb; the difference lies in the fact that the verb
indicates present time, while the tenses of the verb indicate those
times which lie outside the present.
Verbs in and by themselves are substantival and have signifi-
cance, for he who uses such expressions arrests the hearer’s mind,
and fixes his attention; but they do not, as they stand, express any
judgement, either positive or negative. For neither are ’to be’ and
’not to be’ the participle ’being’ significant of any fact, unless so-
mething is added; for they do not themselves indicate anything,
but imply a copulation, of which we cannot form a conception
apart from the things coupled.

Part 4
A sentence is a significant portion of speech, some parts of
which have an independent meaning, that is to say, as an ut-
terance, though not as the expression of any positive judgement.
Let me explain. The word ’human’ has meaning, but does not
constitute a proposition, either positive or negative. It is only
when other words are added that the whole will form an affir-
mation or denial. But if we separate one syllable of the word
’human’ from the other, it has no meaning; similarly in the word
’mouse’, the part ’ouse’ has no meaning in itself, but is merely
a sound. In composite words, indeed, the parts contribute to the
meaning of the whole; yet, as has been pointed out, they have not
an independent meaning.

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4 Aristotle

Every sentence has meaning, not as being the natural means

by which a physical faculty is realized, but, as we have said, by
convention. Yet every sentence is not a proposition; only such are
propositions as have in them either truth or falsity. Thus a prayer
is a sentence, but is neither true nor false.
Let us therefore dismiss all other types of sentence but the
proposition, for this last concerns our present inquiry, whereas the
investigation of the others belongs rather to the study of rhetoric
or of poetry.

Part 5
The first class of simple propositions is the simple affirmation,
the next, the simple denial; all others are only one by conjunction.
Every proposition must contain a verb or the tense of a verb.
The phrase which defines the species ’man’, if no verb in present,
past, or future time be added, is not a proposition. It may be
asked how the expression ’a footed animal with two feet’ can be
called single; for it is not the circumstance that the words follow in
unbroken succession that effects the unity. This inquiry, however,
finds its place in an investigation foreign to that before us.
We call those propositions single which indicate a single fact,
or the conjunction of the parts of which results in unity: those
propositions, on the other hand, are separate and many in number,
which indicate many facts, or whose parts have no conjunction.
Let us, moreover, consent to call a noun or a verb an expres-
sion only, and not a proposition, since it is not possible for a man
to speak in this way when he is expressing something, in such a
way as to make a statement, whether his utterance is an answer to
a question or an act of his own initiation.
To return: of propositions one kind is simple, i.e. that which
asserts or denies something of something, the other composite,
i.e. that which is compounded of simple propositions. A simple
proposition is a statement, with meaning, as to the presence of so-
mething in a subject or its absence, in the present, past, or future,
according to the divisions of time.

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On Interpretation 5

Part 6
An affirmation is a positive assertion of something about so-
mething, a denial a negative assertion.
Now it is possible both to affirm and to deny the presence
of something which is present or of something which is not, and
since these same affirmations and denials are possible with refe-
rence to those times which lie outside the present, it would be
possible to contradict any affirmation or denial. Thus it is plain
that every affirmation has an opposite denial, and similarly every
denial an opposite affirmation.
We will call such a pair of propositions a pair of contradicto-
ries. Those positive and negative propositions are said to be con-
tradictory which have the same subject and predicate. The identity
of subject and of predicate must not be ’equivocal’. Indeed there
are definitive qualifications besides this, which we make to meet
the casuistries of sophists.

Part 7
Some things are universal, others individual. By the term ’uni-
versal’ I mean that which is of such a nature as to be predicated of
many subjects, by ’individual’ that which is not thus predicated.
Thus ’man’ is a universal, ’Callias’ an individual.
Our propositions necessarily sometimes concern a universal
subject, sometimes an individual.
If, then, a man states a positive and a negative proposition of
universal character with regard to a universal, these two proposi-
tions are ’contrary’. By the expression ’a proposition of universal
character with regard to a universal’, such propositions as ’every
man is white’, ’no man is white’ are meant. When, on the other
hand, the positive and negative propositions, though they have re-
gard to a universal, are yet not of universal character, they will
not be contrary, albeit the meaning intended is sometimes con-
trary. As instances of propositions made with regard to a univer-
sal, but not of universal character, we may take the ’propositions

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6 Aristotle

’man is white’, ’man is not white’. ’Man’ is a universal, but the

proposition is not made as of universal character; for the word
’every’ does not make the subject a universal, but rather gives the
proposition a universal character. If, however, both predicate and
subject are distributed, the proposition thus constituted is contrary
to truth; no affirmation will, under such circumstances, be true.
The proposition ’every man is every animal’ is an example of this
type.
An affirmation is opposed to a denial in the sense which I de-
note by the term ’contradictory’, when, while the subject remains
the same, the affirmation is of universal character and the denial is
not. The affirmation ’every man is white’ is the contradictory of
the denial ’not every man is white’, or again, the proposition ’no
man is white’ is the contradictory of the proposition ’some men
are white’. But propositions are opposed as contraries when both
the affirmation and the denial are universal, as in the sentences
’every man is white’, ’no man is white’, ’every man is just’, ’no
man is just’.
We see that in a pair of this sort both propositions cannot be
true, but the contradictories of a pair of contraries can sometimes
both be true with reference to the same subject; for instance ’not
every man is white’ and some men are white’ are both true. Of
such corresponding positive and negative propositions as refer to
universals and have a universal character, one must be true and
the other false. This is the case also when the reference is to
individuals, as in the propositions ’Socrates is white’, ’Socrates is
not white’.
When, on the other hand, the reference is to universals, but the
propositions are not universal, it is not always the case that one is
true and the other false, for it is possible to state truly that man is
white and that man is not white and that man is beautiful and that
man is not beautiful; for if a man is deformed he is the reverse
of beautiful, also if he is progressing towards beauty he is not yet
beautiful.

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On Interpretation 7

This statement might seem at first sight to carry with it a con-

tradiction, owing to the fact that the proposition ’man is not white’
appears to be equivalent to the proposition ’no man is white’.
This, however, is not the case, nor are they necessarily at the same
time true or false.
It is evident also that the denial corresponding to a single affir-
mation is itself single; for the denial must deny just that which the
affirmation affirms concerning the same subject, and must corre-
spond with the affirmation both in the universal or particular cha-
racter of the subject and in the distributed or undistributed sense
in which it is understood.
For instance, the affirmation ’Socrates is white’ has its proper
denial in the proposition ’Socrates is not white’. If anything else
be negatively predicated of the subject or if anything else be the
subject though the predicate remain the same, the denial will not
be the denial proper to that affirmation, but on that is distinct.
The denial proper to the affirmation ’every man is white’ is
’not every man is white’; that proper to the affirmation ’some men
are white’ is ’no man is white’, while that proper to the affirmation
’man is white’ is ’man is not white’.
We have shown further that a single denial is contradictorily
opposite to a single affirmation and we have explained which
these are; we have also stated that contrary are distinct from con-
tradictory propositions and which the contrary are; also that with
regard to a pair of opposite propositions it is not always the case
that one is true and the other false. We have pointed out, moreo-
ver, what the reason of this is and under what circumstances the
truth of the one involves the falsity of the other.

Part 8
An affirmation or denial is single, if it indicates some one
fact about some one subject; it matters not whether the subject
is universal and whether the statement has a universal character,
or whether this is not so. Such single propositions are: ’every
man is white’, ’not every man is white’;’man is white’,’man is

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8 Aristotle

not white’; ’no man is white’, ’some men are white’; provided the
word ’white’ has one meaning. If, on the other hand, one word
has two meanings which do not combine to form one, the affir-
mation is not single. For instance, if a man should establish the
symbol ’garment’ as significant both of a horse and of a man, the
proposition ’garment is white’ would not be a single affirmation,
nor its opposite a single denial. For it is equivalent to the pro-
position ’horse and man are white’, which, again, is equivalent
to the two propositions ’horse is white’, ’man is white’. If, then,
these two propositions have more than a single significance, and
do not form a single proposition, it is plain that the first proposi-
tion either has more than one significance or else has none; for a
particular man is not a horse.
This, then, is another instance of those propositions of which
both the positive and the negative forms may be true or false si-
multaneously.

Part 9
In the case of that which is or which has taken place, proposi-
tions, whether positive or negative, must be true or false. Again,
in the case of a pair of contradictories, either when the subject
is universal and the propositions are of a universal character, or
when it is individual, as has been said,’ one of the two must be
true and the other false; whereas when the subject is universal,
but the propositions are not of a universal character, there is no
such necessity. We have discussed this type also in a previous
chapter.
When the subject, however, is individual, and that which is
predicated of it relates to the future, the case is altered. For if all
propositions whether positive or negative are either true or false,
then any given predicate must either belong to the subject or not,
so that if one man affirms that an event of a given character will
take place and another denies it, it is plain that the statement of
the one will correspond with reality and that of the other will not.

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On Interpretation 9

For the predicate cannot both belong and not belong to the subject
at one and the same time with regard to the future.
Thus, if it is true to say that a thing is white, it must necessarily
be white; if the reverse proposition is true, it will of necessity not
be white. Again, if it is white, the proposition stating that it is
white was true; if it is not white, the proposition to the opposite
effect was true. And if it is not white, the man who states that it
is making a false statement; and if the man who states that it is
white is making a false statement, it follows that it is not white.
It may therefore be argued that it is necessary that affirmations or
denials must be either true or false.
Now if this be so, nothing is or takes place fortuitously, either
in the present or in the future, and there are no real alternatives;
everything takes place of necessity and is fixed. For either he that
affirms that it will take place or he that denies this is in corre-
spondence with fact, whereas if things did not take place of ne-
cessity, an event might just as easily not happen as happen; for the
meaning of the word ’fortuitous’ with regard to present or future
events is that reality is so constituted that it may issue in either of
two opposite directions. Again, if a thing is white now, it was true
before to say that it would be white, so that of anything that has
taken place it was always true to say ’it is’ or ’it will be’. But if it
was always true to say that a thing is or will be, it is not possible
that it should not be or not be about to be, and when a thing cannot
not come to be, it is impossible that it should not come to be, and
when it is impossible that it should not come to be, it must come
to be. All, then, that is about to be must of necessity take place.
It results from this that nothing is uncertain or fortuitous, for if it
were fortuitous it would not be necessary.
Again, to say that neither the affirmation nor the denial is true,
maintaining, let us say, that an event neither will take place nor
will not take place, is to take up a position impossible to defend.
In the first place, though facts should prove the one proposition
false, the opposite would still be untrue. Secondly, if it was true
to say that a thing was both white and large, both these qualities

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10 Aristotle

must necessarily belong to it; and if they will belong to it the next
day, they must necessarily belong to it the next day. But if an
event is neither to take place nor not to take place the next day,
the element of chance will be eliminated. For example, it would
be necessary that a sea-fight should neither take place nor fail to
take place on the next day.
These awkward results and others of the same kind follow, if
it is an irrefragable law that of every pair of contradictory propo-
sitions, whether they have regard to universals and are stated as
universally applicable, or whether they have regard to individu-
als, one must be true and the other false, and that there are no real
alternatives, but that all that is or takes place is the outcome of
necessity. There would be no need to deliberate or to take trouble,
on the supposition that if we should adopt a certain course, a cer-
tain result would follow, while, if we did not, the result would not
follow. For a man may predict an event ten thousand years befo-
rehand, and another may predict the reverse; that which was truly
predicted at the moment in the past will of necessity take place in
the fullness of time.
Further, it makes no difference whether people have or have
not actually made the contradictory statements. For it is manifest
that the circumstances are not influenced by the fact of an affirma-
tion or denial on the part of anyone. For events will not take place
or fail to take place because it was stated that they would or would
not take place, nor is this any more the case if the prediction dates
back ten thousand years or any other space of time. Wherefore,
if through all time the nature of things was so constituted that a
prediction about an event was true, then through all time it was
necessary that that should find fulfillment; and with regard to all
events, circumstances have always been such that their occurrence
is a matter of necessity. For that of which someone has said truly
that it will be, cannot fail to take place; and of that which takes
place, it was always true to say that it would be.
Yet this view leads to an impossible conclusion; for we see
that both deliberation and action are causative with regard to the

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On Interpretation 11

future, and that, to speak more generally, in those things which

are not continuously actual there is potentiality in either direc-
tion. Such things may either be or not be; events also therefore
may either take place or not take place. There are many obvious
instances of this. It is possible that this coat may be cut in half,
and yet it may not be cut in half, but wear out first. In the same
way, it is possible that it should not be cut in half; unless this were
so, it would not be possible that it should wear out first. So it is
therefore with all other events which possess this kind of potentia-
lity. It is therefore plain that it is not of necessity that everything
is or takes place; but in some instances there are real alternatives,
in which case the affirmation is no more true and no more false
than the denial; while some exhibit a predisposition and general
tendency in one direction or the other, and yet can issue in the
opposite direction by exception.
Now that which is must needs be when it is, and that which is
not must needs not be when it is not. Yet it cannot be said without
qualification that all existence and non-existence is the outcome
of necessity. For there is a difference between saying that that
which is, when it is, must needs be, and simply saying that all that
is must needs be, and similarly in the case of that which is not. In
the case, also, of two contradictory propositions this holds good.
Everything must either be or not be, whether in the present or in
the future, but it is not always possible to distinguish and state
determinately which of these alternatives must necessarily come
about.
Let me illustrate. A sea-fight must either take place to-morrow
or not, but it is not necessary that it should take place to-morrow,
neither is it necessary that it should not take place, yet it is ne-
cessary that it either should or should not take place to-morrow.
Since propositions correspond with facts, it is evident that when in
future events there is a real alternative, and a potentiality in con-
trary directions, the corresponding affirmation and denial have the
same character.

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12 Aristotle

This is the case with regard to that which is not always exis-
tent or not always nonexistent. One of the two propositions in
such instances must be true and the other false, but we cannot say
determinately that this or that is false, but must leave the alterna-
tive undecided. One may indeed be more likely to be true than the
other, but it cannot be either actually true or actually false. It is
therefore plain that it is not necessary that of an affirmation and
a denial one should be true and the other false. For in the case
of that which exists potentially, but not actually, the rule which
applies to that which exists actually does not hold good. The case
is rather as we have indicated.

Part 10
An affirmation is the statement of a fact with regard to a sub-
ject, and this subject is either a noun or that which has no name;
the subject and predicate in an affirmation must each denote a
single thing. I have already explained’ what is meant by a noun
and by that which has no name; for I stated that the expression
’not-man’ was not a noun, in the proper sense of the word, but
an indefinite noun, denoting as it does in a certain sense a single
thing. Similarly the expression ’does not enjoy health’ is not a
verb proper, but an indefinite verb. Every affirmation, then, and
every denial, will consist of a noun and a verb, either definite or
indefinite.
There can be no affirmation or denial without a verb; for the
expressions ’is’, ’will be’, ’was’, ’is coming to be’, and the like
are verbs according to our definition, since besides their specific
meaning they convey the notion of time. Thus the primary affir-
mation and denial are ’as follows: ’man is’, ’man is not’. Next to
these, there are the propositions: ’not-man is’, ’not-man is not’.
Again we have the propositions: ’every man is, ’every man is
not’, ’all that is not-man is’, ’all that is not-man is not’. The same
classification holds good with regard to such periods of time as lie
outside the present.

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On Interpretation 13

When the verb ’is’ is used as a third element in the sentence,

there can be positive and negative propositions of two sorts. Thus
in the sentence ’man is just’ the verb ’is’ is used as a third element,
call it verb or noun, which you will. Four propositions, therefore,
instead of two can be formed with these materials. Two of the
four, as regards their affirmation and denial, correspond in their
logical sequence with the propositions which deal with a condi-
tion of privation; the other two do not correspond with these.
I mean that the verb ’is’ is added either to the term ’just’ or to
the term ’not-just’, and two negative propositions are formed in
the same way. Thus we have the four propositions. Reference to
the subjoined table will make matters clear:

A. Affirmation B. Denial Man is just Man is not just \ / X / \

D. Denial C. Affirmation Man is not not-just Man is not-just Here
’is’ and ’is not’ are added either to ’just’ or to ’not-just’. This then
is the proper scheme for these propositions, as has been said in the
Analytics. The same rule holds good, if the subject is distributed.
Thus we have the table:

A’. Affirmation B’. Denial Every man is just Not every man
is just \ / X D’. Denial / \ C’. Affirmation

Not every man is not-just. Every man is not-just Yet here it

is not possible, in the same way as in the former case, that the
propositions joined in the table by a diagonal line should both be
true; though under certain circumstances this is the case.

We have thus set out two pairs of opposite propositions; there

are moreover two other pairs, if a term be conjoined with ’not-
man’, the latter forming a kind of subject. Thus:

A. B."Not-man is just. Not-man is not just \ / - X

D." / \ C."Not-man is not not-just Not-man is not-just

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14 Aristotle

This is an exhaustive enumeration of all the pairs of opposite

propositions that can possibly be framed. This last group should
remain distinct from those which preceded it, since it employs as
its subject the expression ’not-man’.
When the verb ’is’ does not fit the structure of the sentence
(for instance, when the verbs ’walks’, ’enjoys health’ are used),
that scheme applies, which applied when the word ’is’ was added.
Thus we have the propositions: ’every man enjoys health’,
’every man does-not-enjoy-health’, ’all that is not-man enjoys he-
alth’, ’all that is not-man does-not-enjoy-health’. We must not in
these propositions use the expression ’not every man’. The nega-
tive must be attached to the word ’man’, for the word ’every’ does
not give to the subject a universal significance, but implies that, as
a subject, it is distributed. This is plain from the following pairs:
’man enjoys health’, ’man does not enjoy health’; ’not-man en-
joys health’, ’not man does not enjoy health’. These propositions
differ from the former in being indefinite and not universal in cha-
racter. Thus the adjectives ’every’ and no additional significance
except that the subject, whether in a positive or in a negative sen-
tence, is distributed. The rest of the sentence, therefore, will in
each case be the same.
Since the contrary of the proposition ’every animal is just’ is
’no animal is just’, it is plain that these two propositions will never
both be true at the same time or with reference to the same subject.
Sometimes, however, the contradictories of these contraries will
both be true, as in the instance before us: the propositions ’not
every animal is just’ and ’some animals are just’ are both true.
Further, the proposition ’no man is just’ follows from the pro-
position ’every man is not just’ and the proposition ’not every man
is not just’, which is the opposite of ’every man is not-just’, fol-
lows from the proposition ’some men are just’; for if this be true,
there must be some just men.
It is evident, also, that when the subject is individual, if a ques-
tion is asked and the negative answer is the true one, a certain
positive proposition is also true. Thus, if the question were as-

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On Interpretation 15

ked Socrates wise?’ and the negative answer were the true one,
the positive inference ’Then Socrates is unwise’ is correct. But
no such inference is correct in the case of universals, but rather
a negative proposition. For instance, if to the question ’Is every
man wise?’ the answer is ’no’, the inference ’Then every man
is unwise’ is false. But under these circumstances the inference
’Not every man is wise’ is correct. This last is the contradictory,
the former the contrary. Negative expressions, which consist of an
indefinite noun or predicate, such as ’not-man’ or ’not-just’, may
seem to be denials containing neither noun nor verb in the proper
sense of the words. But they are not. For a denial must always be
either true or false, and he that uses the expression ’not man’, if
nothing more be added, is not nearer but rather further from ma-
king a true or a false statement than he who uses the expression
’man’.
The propositions ’everything that is not man is just’, and the
contradictory of this, are not equivalent to any of the other propo-
sitions; on the other hand, the proposition ’everything that is not
man is not just’ is equivalent to the proposition ’nothing that is
not man is just’.
The conversion of the position of subject and predicate in a
sentence involves no difference in its meaning. Thus we say ’man
is white’ and ’white is man’. If these were not equivalent, there
would be more than one contradictory to the same proposition,
whereas it has been demonstrated’ that each proposition has one
proper contradictory and one only. For of the proposition ’man
is white’ the appropriate contradictory is ’man is not white’, and
of the proposition ’white is man’, if its meaning be different, the
contradictory will either be ’white is not not-man’ or ’white is not
man’. Now the former of these is the contradictory of the proposi-
tion ’white is not-man’, and the latter of these is the contradictory
of the proposition ’man is white’; thus there will be two contra-
dictories to one proposition.

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16 Aristotle

It is evident, therefore, that the inversion of the relative posi-

tion of subject and predicate does not affect the sense of affirma-
tions and denials.

Section 2
Part 11
There is no unity about an affirmation or denial which, either
positively or negatively, predicates one thing of many subjects, or
many things of the same subject, unless that which is indicated by
the many is really some one thing. do not apply this word ’one’ to
those things which, though they have a single recognized name,
yet do not combine to form a unity. Thus, man may be an animal,
and biped, and domesticated, but these three predicates combine
to form a unity. On the other hand, the predicates ’white’, ’man’,
and ’walking’ do not thus combine. Neither, therefore, if these
three form the subject of an affirmation, nor if they form its pre-
dicate, is there any unity about that affirmation. In both cases the
unity is linguistic, but not real.
If therefore the dialectical question is a request for an answer,
i.e. either for the admission of a premiss or for the admission of
one of two contradictories-and the premiss is itself always one of
two contradictories-the answer to such a question as contains the
above predicates cannot be a single proposition. For as I have
explained in the Topics, question is not a single one, even if the
answer asked for is true.
At the same time it is plain that a question of the form ’what
is it?’ is not a dialectical question, for a dialectical questioner
must by the form of his question give his opponent the chance
of announcing one of two alternatives, whichever he wishes. He
must therefore put the question into a more definite form, and
inquire, e.g.. whether man has such and such a characteristic or
not.
Some combinations of predicates are such that the separate
predicates unite to form a single predicate. Let us consider under

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On Interpretation 17

what conditions this is and is not possible. We may either state in

two separate propositions that man is an animal and that man is a
biped, or we may combine the two, and state that man is an animal
with two feet. Similarly we may use ’man’ and ’white’ as separate
predicates, or unite them into one. Yet if a man is a shoemaker and
is also good, we cannot construct a composite proposition and
say that he is a good shoemaker. For if, whenever two separate
predicates truly belong to a subject, it follows that the predicate
resulting from their combination also truly belongs to the subject,
many absurd results ensue. For instance, a man is man and white.
Therefore, if predicates may always be combined, he is a white
man. Again, if the predicate ’white’ belongs to him, then the
combination of that predicate with the former composite predicate
will be permissible. Thus it will be right to say that he is a white
man so on indefinitely. Or, again, we may combine the predicates
’musical’, ’white’, and ’walking’, and these may be combined
many times. Similarly we may say that Socrates is Socrates and a
man, and that therefore he is the man Socrates, or that Socrates is a
man and a biped, and that therefore he is a two-footed man. Thus
it is manifest that if man states unconditionally that predicates can
always be combined, many absurd consequences ensue.
We will now explain what ought to be laid down. Those pre-
dicates, and terms forming the subject of predication, which are
accidental either to the same subject or to one another, do not
combine to form a unity. Take the proposition ’man is white of
complexion and musical’. Whiteness and being musical do not
coalesce to form a unity, for they belong only accidentally to the
same subject. Nor yet, if it were true to say that that which is
white is musical, would the terms ’musical’ and ’white’ form a
unity, for it is only incidentally that that which is musical is white;
the combination of the two will, therefore, not form a unity.
Thus, again, whereas, if a man is both good and a shoemaker,
we cannot combine the two propositions and say simply that he is
a good shoemaker, we are, at the same time, able to combine the

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18 Aristotle

predicates ’animal’ and ’biped’ and say that a man is an animal

with two feet, for these predicates are not accidental.
Those predicates, again, cannot form a unity, of which the
one is implicit in the other: thus we cannot combine the predi-
cate ’white’ again and again with that which already contains the
notion ’white’, nor is it right to call a man an animal-man or a
two-footed man; for the notions ’animal’ and ’biped’ are implicit
in the word ’man’. On the other hand, it is possible to predicate a
term simply of any one instance, and to say that some one parti-
cular man is a man or that some one white man is a white man.
Yet this is not always possible: indeed, when in the adjunct
there is some opposite which involves a contradiction, the predi-
cation of the simple term is impossible. Thus it is not right to call
a dead man a man. When, however, this is not the case, it is not
impossible.
Yet the facts of the case might rather be stated thus: when
some such opposite elements are present, resolution is never pos-
sible, but when they are not present, resolution is nevertheless not
always possible. Take the proposition ’Homer is so-and-so’, say
’a poet’; does it follow that Homer is, or does it not? The verb
’is’ is here used of Homer only incidentally, the proposition being
that Homer is a poet, not that he is, in the independent sense of
the word.
Thus, in the case of those predications which have within them
no contradiction when the nouns are expanded into definitions,
and wherein the predicates belong to the subject in their own pro-
per sense and not in any indirect way, the individual may be the
subject of the simple propositions as well as of the composite. But
in the case of that which is not, it is not true to say that because it
is the object of opinion, it is; for the opinion held about it is that
it is not, not that it is.

Part 12
As these distinctions have been made, we must consider the
mutual relation of those affirmations and denials which assert or

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On Interpretation 19

deny possibility or contingency, impossibility or necessity: for the

subject is not without difficulty.
We admit that of composite expressions those are contradic-
tory each to each which have the verb ’to be’ its positive and nega-
tive form respectively. Thus the contradictory of the proposition
’man is’ is ’man is not’, not ’not-man is’, and the contradictory of
’man is white’ is ’man is not white’, not ’man is not-white’. For
otherwise, since either the positive or the negative proposition is
true of any subject, it will turn out true to say that a piece of wood
is a man that is not white.
Now if this is the case, in those propositions which do not
contain the verb ’to be’ the verb which takes its place will exer-
cise the same function. Thus the contradictory of ’man walks’ is
’man does not walk’, not ’not-man walks’; for to say ’man walks’
merely equivalent to saying ’man is walking’.
If then this rule is universal, the contradictory of ’it may be’ is
may not be’, not ’it cannot be’.
Now it appears that the same thing both may and may not be;
for instance, everything that may be cut or may walk may also es-
cape cutting and refrain from walking; and the reason is that those
things that have potentiality in this sense are not always actual. In
such cases, both the positive and the negative propositions will be
true; for that which is capable of walking or of being seen has also
a potentiality in the opposite direction.
But since it is impossible that contradictory propositions should
both be true of the same subject, it follows that’ it may not be’ is
not the contradictory of ’it may be’. For it is a logical conse-
quence of what we have said, either that the same predicate can
be both applicable and inapplicable to one and the same subject
at the same time, or that it is not by the addition of the verbs ’be’
and ’not be’, respectively, that positive and negative propositions
are formed. If the former of these alternatives must be rejected,
we must choose the latter.
The contradictory, then, of ’it may be’ is ’it cannot be’. The
same rule applies to the proposition ’it is contingent that it should

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20 Aristotle

be’; the contradictory of this is ’it is not contingent that it should

be’. The similar propositions, such as ’it is necessary’ and ’it is
impossible’, may be dealt with in the same manner. For it comes
about that just as in the former instances the verbs ’is’ and ’is
not’ were added to the subject-matter of the sentence ’white’ and
’man’, so here ’that it should be’ and ’that it should not be’ are
the subject-matter and ’is possible’, ’is contingent’, are added.
These indicate that a certain thing is or is not possible, just as in
the former instances ’is’ and ’is not’ indicated that certain things
were or were not the case.
The contradictory, then, of ’it may not be’ is not ’it cannot be’,
but ’it cannot not be’, and the contradictory of ’it may be’ is not
’it may not be’, but cannot be’. Thus the propositions ’it may be’
and ’it may not be’ appear each to imply the other: for, since these
two propositions are not contradictory, the same thing both may
and may not be. But the propositions ’it may be’ and ’it cannot
be’ can never be true of the same subject at the same time, for
they are contradictory. Nor can the propositions ’it may not be’
and ’it cannot not be’ be at once true of the same subject.
The propositions which have to do with necessity are gover-
ned by the same principle. The contradictory of ’it is necessary
that it should be’, is not ’it is necessary that it should not be,’ but
’it is not necessary that it should be’, and the contradictory of ’it is
necessary that it should not be’ is ’it is not necessary that it should
not be’.
Again, the contradictory of ’it is impossible that it should be’
is not ’it is impossible that it should not be’ but ’it is not impos-
sible that it should be’, and the contradictory of ’it is impossible
that it should not be’ is ’it is not impossible that it should not be’.
To generalize, we must, as has been stated, define the clauses
’that it should be’ and ’that it should not be’ as the subject-matter
of the propositions, and in making these terms into affirmations
and denials we must combine them with ’that it should be’ and
’that it should not be’ respectively.

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On Interpretation 21

We must consider the following pairs as contradictory propo-

sitions:
It may be. It cannot be. It is contingent. It is not contingent.
It is impossible. It is not impossible. It is necessary. It is not
necessary. It is true. It is not true.

Part 13
Logical sequences follow in due course when we have arran-
ged the propositions thus. From the proposition ’it may be’ it fol-
lows that it is contingent, and the relation is reciprocal. It follows
also that it is not impossible and not necessary.
From the proposition ’it may not be’ or ’it is contingent that
it should not be’ it follows that it is not necessary that it should
not be and that it is not impossible that it should not be. From the
proposition ’it cannot be’ or ’it is not contingent’ it follows that
it is necessary that it should not be and that it is impossible that
it should be. From the proposition ’it cannot not be’ or ’it is not
contingent that it should not be’ it follows that it is necessary that
it should be and that it is impossible that it should not be.
Let us consider these statements by the help of a table:

A. B. It may be. It cannot be. It is contingent. It is not

contingent. It is not impossible It is impossible that it

that it should be. should be. It is not necessary It is ne-

cessary that it

that it should be. should not be.

C. D. It may not be. It cannot not be. It is contingent that

it It is not contingent that

should not be. it should not be. It is not impossible It is

impossible thatit

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22 Aristotle

that it should not be. should not be. It is not necessary

that It is necessary that it

it should not be. should be.

Now the propositions ’it is impossible that it should be’ and

’it is not impossible that it should be’ are consequent upon the
propositions ’it may be’, ’it is contingent’, and ’it cannot be’, ’it
is not contingent’, the contradictories upon the contradictories.
But there is inversion. The negative of the proposition ’it is im-
possible’ is consequent upon the proposition ’it may be’ and the
corresponding positive in the first case upon the negative in the
second. For ’it is impossible’ is a positive proposition and ’it is
not impossible’ is negative.
We must investigate the relation subsisting between these pro-
positions and those which predicate necessity. That there is a
distinction is clear. In this case, contrary propositions follow re-
spectively from contradictory propositions, and the contradictory
propositions belong to separate sequences. For the proposition
’it is not necessary that it should be’ is not the negative of ’it is
necessary that it should not be’, for both these propositions may
be true of the same subject; for when it is necessary that a thing
should not be, it is not necessary that it should be. The reason why
the propositions predicating necessity do not follow in the same
kind of sequence as the rest, lies in the fact that the proposition
’it is impossible’ is equivalent, when used with a contrary subject,
to the proposition ’it is necessary’. For when it is impossible that
a thing should be, it is necessary, not that it should be, but that it
should not be, and when it is impossible that a thing should not be,
it is necessary that it should be. Thus, if the propositions predi-
cating impossibility or non-impossibility follow without change
of subject from those predicating possibility or non-possibility,
those predicating necessity must follow with the contrary subject;
for the propositions ’it is impossible’ and ’it is necessary’ are not
equivalent, but, as has been said, inversely connected.

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On Interpretation 23

Yet perhaps it is impossible that the contradictory propositions

predicating necessity should be thus arranged. For when it is ne-
cessary that a thing should be, it is possible that it should be. (For
if not, the opposite follows, since one or the other must follow; so,
if it is not possible, it is impossible, and it is thus impossible that
a thing should be, which must necessarily be; which is absurd.)
Yet from the proposition ’it may be’ it follows that it is not
impossible, and from that it follows that it is not necessary; it co-
mes about therefore that the thing which must necessarily be need
not be; which is absurd. But again, the proposition ’it is necessary
that it should be’ does not follow from the proposition ’it may be’,
nor does the proposition ’it is necessary that it should not be’. For
the proposition ’it may be’ implies a twofold possibility, while, if
either of the two former propositions is true, the twofold possibi-
lity vanishes. For if a thing may be, it may also not be, but if it
is necessary that it should be or that it should not be, one of the
two alternatives will be excluded. It remains, therefore, that the
proposition ’it is not necessary that it should not be’ follows from
the proposition ’it may be’. For this is true also of that which must
necessarily be.
Moreover the proposition ’it is not necessary that it should not
be’ is the contradictory of that which follows from the proposition
’it cannot be’; for ’it cannot be’ is followed by ’it is impossible
that it should be’ and by ’it is necessary that it should not be’,
and the contradictory of this is the proposition ’it is not necessary
that it should not be’. Thus in this case also contradictory propo-
sitions follow contradictory in the way indicated, and no logical
impossibilities occur when they are thus arranged.
It may be questioned whether the proposition ’it may be’ fol-
lows from the proposition ’it is necessary that it should be’. If
not, the contradictory must follow, namely that it cannot be, or, if
a man should maintain that this is not the contradictory, then the
proposition ’it may not be’.
Now both of these are false of that which necessarily is. At
the same time, it is thought that if a thing may be cut it may also

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24 Aristotle

not be cut, if a thing may be it may also not be, and thus it would
follow that a thing which must necessarily be may possibly not
be; which is false. It is evident, then, that it is not always the case
that that which may be or may walk possesses also a potentiality
in the other direction. There are exceptions. In the first place we
must except those things which possess a potentiality not in accor-
dance with a rational principle, as fire possesses the potentiality of
giving out heat, that is, an irrational capacity. Those potentialities
which involve a rational principle are potentialities of more than
one result, that is, of contrary results; those that are irrational are
not always thus constituted. As I have said, fire cannot both heat
and not heat, neither has anything that is always actual any two-
fold potentiality. Yet some even of those potentialities which are
irrational admit of opposite results. However, thus much has been
said to emphasize the truth that it is not every potentiality which
admits of opposite results, even where the word is used always in
the same sense.
But in some cases the word is used equivocally. For the term
’possible’ is ambiguous, being used in the one case with reference
to facts, to that which is actualized, as when a man is said to find
walking possible because he is actually walking, and generally
when a capacity is predicated because it is actually realized; in
the other case, with reference to a state in which realization is
conditionally practicable, as when a man is said to find walking
possible because under certain conditions he would walk. This
last sort of potentiality belongs only to that which can be in mo-
tion, the former can exist also in the case of that which has not
this power. Both of that which is walking and is actual, and of
that which has the capacity though not necessarily realized, it is
true to say that it is not impossible that it should walk (or, in the
other case, that it should be), but while we cannot predicate this
latter kind of potentiality of that which is necessary in the unqua-
lified sense of the word, we can predicate the former.

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On Interpretation 25

Our conclusion, then, is this: that since the universal is conse-

quent upon the particular, that which is necessary is also possible,
though not in every sense in which the word may be used.
We may perhaps state that necessity and its absence are the
initial principles of existence and non-existence, and that all else
must be regarded as posterior to these.
It is plain from what has been said that that which is of neces-
sity is actual. Thus, if that which is eternal is prior, actuality also
is prior to potentiality. Some things are actualities without poten-
tiality, namely, the primary substances; a second class consists of
those things which are actual but also potential, whose actuality
is in nature prior to their potentiality, though posterior in time; a
third class comprises those things which are never actualized, but
are pure potentialities.

Part 14
The question arises whether an affirmation finds its contrary in
a denial or in another affirmation; whether the proposition ’every
man is just’ finds its contrary in the proposition ’no man is just’,
or in the proposition ’every man is unjust’. Take the propositions
’Callias is just’, ’Callias is not just’, ’Callias is unjust’; we have
to discover which of these form contraries.
Now if the spoken word corresponds with the judgement of
the mind, and if, in thought, that judgement is the contrary of ano-
ther, which pronounces a contrary fact, in the way, for instance, in
which the judgement ’every man is just’ pronounces a contrary to
that pronounced by the judgement ’every man is unjust’, the same
must needs hold good with regard to spoken affirmations.
But if, in thought, it is not the judgement which pronounces a
contrary fact that is the contrary of another, then one affirmation
will not find its contrary in another, but rather in the correspon-
ding denial. We must therefore consider which true judgement is
the contrary of the false, that which forms the denial of the false
judgement or that which affirms the contrary fact.

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26 Aristotle

Let me illustrate. There is a true judgement concerning that

which is good, that it is good; another, a false judgement, that it
is not good; and a third, which is distinct, that it is bad. Which
of these two is contrary to the true? And if they are one and the
same, which mode of expression forms the contrary?
It is an error to suppose that judgements are to be defined as
contrary in virtue of the fact that they have contrary subjects; for
the judgement concerning a good thing, that it is good, and that
concerning a bad thing, that it is bad, may be one and the same,
and whether they are so or not, they both represent the truth. Yet
the subjects here are contrary. But judgements are not contrary
because they have contrary subjects, but because they are to the
contrary effect.
Now if we take the judgement that that which is good is good,
and another that it is not good, and if there are at the same time
other attributes, which do not and cannot belong to the good, we
must nevertheless refuse to treat as the contraries of the true jud-
gement those which opine that some other attribute subsists which
does not subsist, as also those that opine that some other attribute
does not subsist which does subsist, for both these classes of jud-
gement are of unlimited content.
Those judgements must rather be termed contrary to the true
judgements, in which error is present. Now these judgements are
those which are concerned with the starting points of generation,
and generation is the passing from one extreme to its opposite;
therefore error is a like transition.
Now that which is good is both good and not bad. The first
quality is part of its essence, the second accidental; for it is by ac-
cident that it is not bad. But if that true judgement is most really
true, which concerns the subject’s intrinsic nature, then that false
judgement likewise is most really false, which concerns its intrin-
sic nature. Now the judgement that that is good is not good is a
false judgement concerning its intrinsic nature, the judgement that
it is bad is one concerning that which is accidental. Thus the jud-
gement which denies the true judgement is more really false than

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On Interpretation 27

that which positively asserts the presence of the contrary quality.

But it is the man who forms that judgement which is contrary
to the true who is most thoroughly deceived, for contraries are
among the things which differ most widely within the same class.
If then of the two judgements one is contrary to the true judge-
ment, but that which is contradictory is the more truly contrary,
then the latter, it seems, is the real contrary. The judgement that
that which is good is bad is composite. For presumably the man
who forms that judgement must at the same time understand that
that which is good is not good.
Further, the contradictory is either always the contrary or ne-
ver; therefore, if it must necessarily be so in all other cases, our
conclusion in the case just dealt with would seem to be correct.
Now where terms have no contrary, that judgement is false, which
forms the negative of the true; for instance, he who thinks a man
is not a man forms a false judgement. If then in these cases the
negative is the contrary, then the principle is universal in its app-
lication.
Again, the judgement that that which is not good is not good
is parallel with the judgement that that which is good is good.
Besides these there is the judgement that that which is good is
not good, parallel with the judgement that that that is not good is
good. Let us consider, therefore, what would form the contrary of
the true judgement that that which is not good is not good. The
judgement that it is bad would, of course, fail to meet the case,
since two true judgements are never contrary and this judgement
might be true at the same time as that with which it is connected.
For since some things which are not good are bad, both judge-
ments may be true. Nor is the judgement that it is not bad the
contrary, for this too might be true, since both qualities might
be predicated of the same subject. It remains, therefore, that of
the judgement concerning that which is not good, that it is not
good, the contrary judgement is that it is good; for this is false. In
the same way, moreover, the judgement concerning that which is

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28 Aristotle

good, that it is not good, is the contrary of the judgement that it is

good.
It is evident that it will make no difference if we universalize
the positive judgement, for the universal negative judgement will
form the contrary. For instance, the contrary of the judgement
that everything that is good is good is that nothing that is good
is good. For the judgement that that which is good is good, if
the subject be understood in a universal sense, is equivalent to the
judgement that whatever is good is good, and this is identical with
the judgement that everything that is good is good. We may deal
similarly with judgements concerning that which is not good.
If therefore this is the rule with judgements, and if spoken af-
firmations and denials are judgements expressed in words, it is
plain that the universal denial is the contrary of the affirmation
about the same subject. Thus the propositions ’everything good is
good’, ’every man is good’, have for their contraries the proposi-
tions ’nothing good is good’, ’no man is good’. The contradictory
propositions, on the other hand, are ’not everything good is good’,
’not every man is good’.
It is evident, also, that neither true judgements nor true pro-
positions can be contrary the one to the other. For whereas, when
two propositions are true, a man may state both at the same time
without inconsistency, contrary propositions are those which state
contrary conditions, and contrary conditions cannot subsist at one
and the same time in the same subject.

THE END

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