Since things which differ can differ from one another in a greater or less degree, there is a certain maximum difference, and this I call contrariety. That it is the maximum difference is shown by induction. For whereas things which differ in genus have no means of passing into each other, and are more widely distant, and are not comparable, in the case of things which differ in species the contraries are the extremes from which generation takes place;
and the greatest distance is that which is between the extremes, and therefore also between the contraries. But in every class the greatest thing is complete. For (a) that is greatest which cannot be exceeded, and (b) that is complete outside which nothing proper to it can be found. For complete difference implies an end, just as all other things are called complete because they imply an end.
And there is nothing beyond the end; for in everything the end is the last thing, and forms the boundary. Thus there is nothing beyond the end, and that which is complete lacks nothing.
From this argument, then, it is clear that contrariety is maximum difference; and since we speak of contraries in various senses, the sense of completeness will vary in accordance with the sense of contrariety which applies to the contraries.
This being so, evidently one thing cannot have more than one contrary (since there can be nothing more extreme than the extreme, nor can there be more than two extremes of one interval); and in general this is evident, if contrariety is difference, and difference (and therefore complete difference) is between two things.
The other definitions of contraries must also be true, for (1.) complete difference is the maximum difference; since (a) we can find nothing beyond it, whether things differ in genus or in species (for we have shown that difference in relation to things outside the genus is impossible; this is the maximum difference between them); and (b) the things which differ most in the same genus are contraries; for complete difference is the maximum difference between these.
(2.) The things which differ most in the same receptive material are contraries; for contraries have the same matter. (3.) The most different things which come under the same faculty are contraries; for one science treats of one class of things, in which complete difference is the greatest.
Positive state
and Privation
constitute primary contrariety—not every form of privation (for it has several senses), but any form which is complete. All other contraries must be so called with respect to these; some because they possess these, others because they produce them or are productive of them, and others because they are acquisitions or losses of these or other contraries.
Now if the types of opposition are contradiction, privation, contrariety and relation, and of these the primary type is contradiction, and an intermediate is impossible in contradiction but possible between contraries, obviously contradiction is not the same as contrariety; and privation is a form of contradiction;
for it is either that which is totally incapable of possessing some attribute, Footnote 1This is not a proper example of privation. Cf. Aristot. Met. 5.22. or that which would naturally possess some attribute but does not, that suffers privation—either absolutely or in some specified way. Here we already have several meanings, which we have distinguished elsewhere. Thus privation is a kind of contradiction or incapacity which is determinate or associated with the receptive material.
This is why though there is no intermediate in contradiction there is one in some kinds of privation. For everything is either equal or not equal, but not everything is either equal or unequal; if it is, it is only so in the case of a material which admits of equality. If, then, processes of material generation start from the contraries, and proceed either from the form and the possession of the form, or from some privation of the form or shape, clearly all contrariety must be a form of privation, although presumably not all privation is contrariety.
This is because that which suffers privation may suffer it in several senses; for it is only the extremes from which changes proceed that are contraries.
This can also be shown by induction. Every contrariety involves privation as one of its contraries, but not always in the same way: inequality involves the privation of equality, dissimilarity that of similarity, evil that of goodness.
And the differences are as we have stated: one case is, if a thing is merely deprived; another, if it is deprived at a certain time or in a certain part—e.g. at a certain age or in the important part—or entirely. Hence in some cases there is an intermediate (there are men who are neither good nor bad), and in others there is not—a thing must be either odd or even.
Again, some have a determinate subject, and others have not. Thus it is evident that one of a pair of contraries always has a privative sense; but it is enough if this is true of the primary or generic contraries, e.g. unity and plurality; for the others can be reduced to them.