Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EE VII 2 1236a23-4
Joseph Owens, C.Ss.R.
ι
In the course of his paper 'Does Primacy Confer Universality? Logic
and Theology in Aristotle', Professor John Thorp (21-40) draws atten-
tion to an interesting passage in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics. Thorp's
framing of his subtitle in terms of logic and theology may seem a bit
unusual for the contrast between ontology and the Aristotelian theo-
logical science, a contrast worded in the latter way from Natorp on
in the debate about the subject of Aristotle's primary philosophy. But
one of the senses given ontology has been 'the largest logical system'
(Feibleman). So from that angle there need not be any strenuous ob-
jection to the phrasing. Nor in regard to the text signalized from the
Eudemian Ethics does any special difficulty arise for the discussion of
the problem under that subtitle. The importance of the short text for
the controversy on the subject of the Aristotelian Metaphysics is in con-
sequence not affected by Thorp's formulation of the question. His con-
clusion in regard to it, at the end of his 'second objection' (21), is
strongly worded: 'If Aristotle is claiming that the study of substance
is necessarily the study of the common properties of beings, of what
makes beings beings, then he is refuted out of his own mouth and in
the most unequivocal language' (24).
Thorp's intervention in the controversy thereby highlights 'this little-
noticed but very rich passage' (21) from the Eudemian Ethics. The pas-
sage is indeed exceptionally enlightening in regard to the debated point.
But its wording conjures up a deep background in Aristotle's distinc-
1 EE, VII 2, 1236a23-24 (Bekker). Susemihl, though with hesitation, excises the
article before the first πρώτον, suggesting that if it be retained another το
should be inserted before the first καθόλου. Against this see Franz Dirlmeier,
Endemische Ethik (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1969), 384. The Oxford translation
(Solomon) is 'But because the universal is primary, they also take the primary
to be universal, and this is an error', unchanged in Barnes' revision. The Loeb
(Rackham) is 'and because the universal is primary they assume that also the
primary is universal; but this is untrue'. Decarie renders it in French 'mais
parce que 1'universel est premier, on croit que le premier est universe!: c'est
une erreur'. In German, Dirlmeier has 'Weil nun aber das Allgemeine ein
'Erstes' ist, fassen sie auch das "Erste" als allgemein' Context infra, nn 7-8
II
same predicated notion, while each remains itself and distinct from the others.
'Each as individual' (ως έκαστον-531) is the object that is predicated univer-
sally. But while being that object it does not thereby coincide with any of the
other individuals. Socrates is 'a man'. Plato is 'a man'. But Socrates does not
become Plato. Ross' 'severally' carries the notion correctly.
4 See Metaph, IV 2, 1003bl, XI 3, 1061a4-5.
5 The text at 1236a20 may be clarified by emending it, as Bonitz suggested, to
read 'in all'. Cf. πανταχού at a22 and at Metaph, IV 2, 1003bl6. On the emen-
dation see Enrico Berti, 'Multiplicite et unite du bien selon EE I 8,' in Paul
Moraux and Dieter Harflinger, eds. Untersuchungen zur Eudermschen Ethik (Ber-
lin: De Gruyter 1971), 174, n 55. Against the emendation, see Dirlmeier, 383-4.
6 Here the reference to the primary instance is graded. The instrument, for in-
stance a bandage or a splint or a salve, or today a stethoscope or thermome-
ter, is medical because of the use made of it by the practitioner, while the
practitioner is medical because of his immediate relation to medical art.
7 ... εν δε τω του ιατρού λόγω ουκ έοτιν ό του οργάνου, ζητείται μεν ούν παν-
ταχού το πρώτον. ΕΕ, VII 2, 1236a22-3 (Susemihl text).
Here a few remarks are in order. Medical art is what the practition-
er qua 'medical' possesses. It is what the instrument qua 'medical' is
directed by. But intrinsically the man remains a man, and the instru-
ment remains the kind of thing it is, even though both are 'medical'
through their added reference to the primary instance, medical art.
Neither becomes that art, in the way that Socrates and Plato are each
'a man', severally. In the way 'a man' is predicated universally of hu-
man individuals it expresses the intrinsic nature of each instance. In
the way 'medical' is predicated of all its instances it coincides in na-
ture with only the primary instance, and in the other instances remains
outside their natures though adding the reference to the nature of that
primary instance. The result is that while the nature predicated univo-
cally is intrinsically present in each of the instances, so that Socrates
is a man and Plato is a man, the nature predicated through focal refer-
ence remains in the primary instance only. Practitioner and instrument
do not coincide in one intrinsic nature through being medical, though
Socrates and Plato coincide in the same human nature through being
each 'a man'.
The sentence considered earlier (supra, n 1) now follows in immedi-
ate sequence. The primary instance looked for in all the instances is
expressly referred to as 'the universal'. Because here the universal is
the primary instance, Aristotle's adversaries are reported to be refus-
ing to acknowledge other instances of friendship. They see that the
primary instance of friendship, namely friendship based on virtue, does
not coincide in notion (ου γαρ έφαρμόττοντος ενός λόγου ... οταν ή
πρώτη μη έφαρμόττη) with associations based on utility or pleasure.
If it were universal (for them) through the fact of being primary, its
notion would have to coincide with those of the other associations.
On that ground they deny those associations the status of friendship.8
... οϊ δ' όταν ή πρώτη μη έφαρμόττη, ως ούσαν καθόλου αν, εϊπερ ην πρώτη,
οΰδ' είναι φιλίας τάς ολλας φασίν εστί δε πολλά είδη φιλίας ΕΕ VII 2,
1236a28-30 (Susemihl text) At 28a the accusative absolute ούσαν marks the
apodosis as a conclusion of the adversaries: 'they say that if it [the primary
friendship] were universal by reason of being primary, the other kinds would
not be friendships'. This brings out even more strongly that the adversaries
are the ones who are introducing into the argument the notion of a universali-
ty that has each instance coincide severally with the nature expressed by the
term, and who are drawing the conclusion that since associations based on
utility and pleasure do not coincide in notion with the association based on
virtue these latter cannot be friendships Aristotle does not give any further
This brings out clearly enough what Aristotle takes his adversaries
to mean by the universality they deny to focal reference. It is a univer-
sality in which the nature of the primary instance would have to be
intrinsic to the natures of the other instances, in the way in which hu-
man nature is intrinsic to both Socrates and Plato, or the generic na-
ture 'animal' is intrinsic to both man and beast. It would be the kind
of universality described in the fifth book of the Metaphysics (see supra,
n 3). Aristotle has no hesitation in denying that a primary instance is
universal when 'universal' is being understood in that way, for friend-
ship through virtue (the primary instance of the notion) does not enter
intrinsically into the natures of friendship for utility or friendship for
pleasure. Taking 'universal' in the sense fixed for it by his adversaries
in the discussion, Aristotle could readily agree that the conclusion 'a
primary instance is universal' (a24-5) is false.
But is it really plausible that Aristotle would proceed in this way?
In one and the same sentence would he be willing to use the term
'universal' in the sense of focal meaning in the first clause, and then
without warning use it in a different sense in the second clause?
explanation in the compact text of the Eudemian Ethics. But even in the more
extensive discussions in the Metaphysics he is content with asserting categori-
cally that no universal is an ουσία while maintaining that ουσία is the primary
instance of being. In this regard W.W. Fortenbaugh, 'Aristotle's Analysis of
Friendship: Function and Analogy, Resemblance, and Focal Meaning/ Phrone-
sis 20 (1975) 51-62, acknowledges the focal reference framework for friendship
in the Eudemian Ethics, while considering it mistaken: "The author of the Eude-
mian Ethics, whether he be a younger Aristotle or a later imitator, may have
thought that he could apply focal analysis ...' (57), but "The Eudemian Ethics is
mistaken in suggesting focal analysis ...' (62). Fortenbaugh insists that 'pleas-
ure is not conceptually dependent upon perfect friendship' (58), and that
friendship directed to utility 'is not formally dependent upon the friendship of
morally good men' (59). But in fact the situation here satisfies adequately the
framework of Metaph II I,993b24-31. Quite as the primary instance of being is
imitated by the lesser instances, so the lower human associations imitate in
lesser ways the human association that is highest. In the focal reference frame-
work the secondary instances can be literally and genuinely friendships, even
though they are essentially different from the primary instance. Here 'secon-
dary' does not mean figurative or improper. The secondary instances are
authentically friendships (in the Greek sense), just as quantities and qualities
and actions are genuinely beings even though they do not coincide in mean-
ing with the primary instance, ουσία.
Ill
careful study, for it centers attention upon the crucial contrast between
the two different types of universality involved in the discussion.
Though the umbrella as made to measure covers only the head of the
elephant, its location can be varied in ways that allow the other mem-
bers to come in one fashion or another under its shelter. Because
πολλαχώς, focal meaning adapts its contours on each occasion to the
varying natures of the instances in which it is found. The perfection
signified remains the same. But the secondary instances share it in
different degrees or relationships.
In reply, then, to the question 'Does primacy confer universality?'
Aristotle's answer is clearcut. The primary instance in focal reference
is necessarily universal to all the focal instances. But universality in
the sense that each secondary instance would severally coincide in na-
ture with what is universally predicated in this focal way, is thereby
necessarily excluded. No secondary instance can coincide with what
the primary instance is, in the focal type of universality. The conten-
tion of Aristotle's adversaries was that because here the universal by
focal reference is the primary instance, a primary instance is a univer-
sal. Aristotle categorically brands this conclusion as false. That is the
reverse side of the coin. The obverse side, Aristotle's own tenet, would
be: 'Because what is universal through focal reference is the primary
instance, it is not universal in the sense of being predicable severally
of each of its focal instances'. The ambiguity is fully that sharp, and
has to be respected if one wishes to appreciate the depth of Aristotle's
thought.