Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/267

 something, of somewhat, is affirmation, and that (which signifies) something from somewhat is negation. Of an immediate syllogistic principle, I call that the thesis, which it is not possible to demonstrate, nor is it necessary that he should possess it, who intends to learn any thing; but what he who intends to learn any thing must necessarily possess, that I call an axiom, for there are certain things of this kind, and in denominating these, we are accustomed generally to use this name. But of thesis, that which receives either part of contradiction, as for instance, I mean that a certain thing is, or that it is not, is hypothesis, but that which is without this, is definition. For definition is a thesis, since the arithmetician lays down unity to be that which is indivisible, according to quantity, yet it is not hypothesis, since what unity is, and that unity is, are not the same thing.

Notwithstanding, since we must believe in and know a thing from possessing such a syllogism as we call demonstration, and this is, because these are so, of which syllogism consists—it is necessary not only to have a previous knowledge of the first, or all, or some things, but that they should be more known, for that on account of which any thing exists, always exists itself in a greater degree; for example, that on account of which we love is itself more beloved. Hence if we know and believe on account of things first, we also know and believe those first things in a greater degree, because through them (we know and believe) things posterior. A man however cannot believe more than what he knows, those things which he does not know, nor with respect to which he is better disposed