The same
means (a) accidentally the same. E.g., white
and cultured
are the same because they are accidents of the same subject; and man
is the same as cultured,
because one is an accident of the other; and cultured
is the same as man
because it is an accident of man
; and cultured man
is the same as each of the terms cultured
and man,
and vice versa; for both man
and cultured
are used in the same way as cultured man,
and the latter in the same way as the former.
Hence none of these predications can be made universally. For it is not true to say that every man is the same as the cultured
; because universal predications are essential to things, but accidental predications are not so, but are made of individuals and with a single application. Socrates
and cultured Socrates
seem to be the same; but Socrates
is not a class-name, and hence we do not say every Socrates
as we say every man.
Some things are said to be the same
in this sense, but (b) others in an essential sense, in the same number of senses as the one
is essentially one; for things whose matter is formally or numerically one, and things whose substance is one, are said to be the same. Thus sameness
is clearly a kind of unity in the being, either of two or more things, or of one thing treated as more than one; as, e.g., when a thing is consistent with itself; for it is then treated as two.
Things are called other
of which either the forms or the matter or the definition of essence is more than one; and in general other
is used in the opposite senses to same.
Things are called different
which, while being in a sense the same, are other
not only numerically, but formally or generically or analogically; also things whose genus is not the same; and contraries; and all things which contain otherness
in their essence.
Things are called like
which have the same attributes in all respects; or more of those attributes the same than different; or whose quality is one. Also that which has a majority or the more important of those attributes of something else in respect of which change is possible (i.e. the contraries) is like that thing. And unlike
is used in the opposite senses to like.