第 144 节
作者:
卖吻 更新:2021-08-28 17:09 字数:9322
other genus。 To identify Stability with Being; with no difference between them; and to identify Being with Motion; would be to identify Stability with Motion through the mediation of Being; and so to make Motion and Stability one and the same thing。 8。 We cannot indeed escape positing these three; Being; Motion; Stability; once it is the fact that the Intellect discerns them as separates; and if it thinks of them at all; it posits them by that very thinking; if they are thought; they exist。 Things whose existence is bound up with Matter have no being in the Intellect: these three principles are however free of Matter; and in that which goes free of Matter to be thought is to be。 We are in the presence of Intellect undefiled。 Fix it firmly; but not with the eyes of the body。 You are looking upon the hearth of Reality; within it a sleepless light: you see how it holds to itself; and how it puts apart things that were together; how it lives a life that endures and keeps a thought acting not upon any future but upon that which already is; upon an eternal present… a thought self…centred; bearing on nothing outside of itself。 Now in the Act of Intellect there are energy and motion; in its self…intellection Substance and Being。 In virtue of its Being it thinks; and it thinks of itself as Being; and of that as Being; upon which it is; so to speak; pivoted。 Not that its Act self…directed ranks as Substance; but Being stands as the goal and origin of that Act; the object of its contemplation though not the contemplation itself: and yet this Act too involves Being; which is its motive and its term。 By the fact that its Being is actual and not merely potential; Intellect bridges the dualism 'of agent and patient' and abjures separation: it identifies itself with Being and Being with itself。 Being; the most firmly set of all things; that in virtue of which all other things receive Stability; possesses this Stability not as from without but as springing within; as inherent。 Stability is the goal of intellection; a Stability which had no beginning; and the state from which intellection was impelled was Stability; though Stability gave it no impulsion; for Motion neither starts from Motion nor ends in Motion。 Again; the Form…Idea has Stability; since it is the goal of Intellect: intellection is the Form's Motion。 Thus all the Existents are one; at once Motion and Stability; Motion and Stability are genera all…pervading; and every subsequent is a particular being; a particular stability and a particular motion。 We have caught the radiance of Being; and beheld it in its three manifestations: Being; revealed by the Being within ourselves; the Motion of Being; revealed by the motion within ourselves; and its Stability revealed by ours。 We accommodate our being; motion; stability to those 'of the Archetypal'; unable however to draw any distinction but finding ourselves in the presence of entities inseparable and; as it were; interfused。 We have; however; in a sense; set them a little apart; holding them down and viewing them in isolation; and thus we have observed Being; Stability; Motion… these three; of which each is a unity to itself; in so doing; have we not regarded them as being different from each other? By this posing of three entities; each a unity; we have; surely; found Being to contain Difference。 Again; inasmuch as we restore them to an all…embracing unity; identifying all with unity; do we not see in this amalgamation Identity emerging as a Real Existent? Thus; in addition to the other three 'Being; Motion; Stability'; we are obliged to posit the further two; Identity and Difference; so that we have in all five genera。 In so doing; we shall not withhold Identity and Difference from the subsequents of the Intellectual order; the thing of Sense has; it is clear; a particular identity and a particular difference; but Identity and Difference have the generic status independently of the particular。 They will; moreover; be primary genera; because nothing can be predicated of them as denoting their essential nature。 Nothing; of course we mean; but Being; but this Being is not their genus; since they cannot be identified with any particular being as such。 Similarly; Being will not stand as genus to Motion or Stability; for these also are not its species。 Beings 'or Existents' comprise not merely what are to be regarded as species of the genus Being; but also participants in Being。 On the other hand; Being does not participate in the other four principles as its genera: they are not prior to Being; they do not even attain to its level。 9。 The above considerations… to which others; doubtless; might be added… suffice to show that these five are primary genera。 But that they are the only primary genera; that there are no others; how can we be confident of this? Why do we not add unity to them? Quantity? Quality? Relation; and all else included by our various forerunners? As for unity: If the term is to mean a unity in which nothing else is present; neither Soul nor Intellect nor anything else; this can be predicated of nothing; and therefore cannot be a genus。 If it denotes the unity present in Being; in which case we predicate Being of unity; this unity is not primal。 Besides; unity; containing no differences; cannot produce species; and not producing species; cannot be a genus。 You cannot so much as divide unity: to divide it would be to make it many。 Unity; aspiring to be a genus; becomes a plurality and annuls itself。 Again; you must add to it to divide it into species; for there can be no differentiae in unity as there are in Substance。 The mind accepts differences of Being; but differences within unity there cannot be。 Every differentia introduces a duality destroying the unity; for the addition of any one thing always does away with the previous quantity。 It may be contended that the unity which is implicit in Being and in Motion is common to all other things; and that therefore Being and unity are inseparable。 But we rejected the idea that Being is a genus comprising all things; on the ground that these things are not beings in the sense of the Absolute Being; but beings in another mode: in the same way; we assert; unity is not a genus; the Primary Unity having a character distinct from all other unities。 Admitted that not everything suffices to produce a genus; it may yet be urged that there is an Absolute or Primary Unity corresponding to the other primaries。 But if Being and unity are identified; then since Being has already been included among the genera; it is but a name that is introduced in unity: if; however; they are both unity; some principle is implied: if there is anything in addition 'to this principle'; unity is predicated of this added thing; if there is nothing added; the reference is again to that unity predicated of nothing。 If however the unity referred to is that which accompanies Being; we have already decided that it is not unity in the primary sense。 But is there any reason why this less complete unity should not still possess Primary Being; seeing that even its posterior we rank as Being; and 〃Being〃 in the sense of the Primary Being? The reason is that the prior of this Being cannot itself be Being… or else; if the prior is Being; this is not Primary Being: but the prior is unity; 'therefore unity is not Being'。 Furthermore; unity; abstracted from Being; has no differentiae。 Again; even taking it as bound up with Being: If it is a consequent of Being; then it is a consequent of everything; and therefore the latest of things: but the genus takes priority。 If it is simultaneous with Being; it is simultaneous with everything: but a genus is not thus simultaneous。 If it is prior to Being; it is of the nature of a Principle; and therefore will belong only to Being; but if it serves as Principle to Being; it is not its genus: if it is not genus to Being; it is equally not a genus of anything else; for that would make Being a genus of all other things。 In sum; the unity exhibited in Being on the one hand approximates to Unity…Absolute and on the other tends to identify itself with Being: Being is a unity in relation to the Absolute; is Being by virtue of its sequence upon that Absolute: it is indeed potentially a plurality; and yet it remains a unity and rejecting division refuses thereby to become a genus。 10。 In what sense is the particular manifestation of Being a unity? Clearly; in so far as it is one thing; it forfeits its unity; with 〃one〃 and 〃thing〃 we have already plurality。 No species can be a unity in more than an equivocal sense: a species is a plurality; so that the 〃unity〃 here is that of an army or a chorus。 The unity of the higher order does not belong to species; unity is; thus; ambiguous; not taking the same form in Being and in particular beings。 It follows that unity is not a genus。 For a genus is such that wherever it is affirmed its opposites cannot also be affirmed; anything of which unity and its opposites are alike affirmed… and this implies the whole of Being… cannot have unity as a genus。 Consequently unity can be affirmed as a genus neither of the primary genera… since the unity of Being is as much a plurality as a unity