Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/81



Chapter 10
affirmation signifies something of something, and this is either a noun, or anonymous, (i. e. indefinite,) but what is in affirmation must be one and of one thing, all affirmation and negation will be either from a noun and a verb, or from an indefinite noun and verb. (But what a noun is, and what the anonymous, has been shown before, for I do not reckon "not man" a noun, but an indefinite noun, for an indefinite noun signifies in a certain respect one thing, just as "is not well" is not a verb, but an indefinite verb.) Still without a verb there is neither an affirmation nor negation, for "is," or "will be," or "was," or "is going to be," and so forth, are verbs, from what has been already laid down, since in addition to something else they signify time. Hence the first affirmation and negation (will be), "man is," "man is not," afterwards "non-man is," "non-man is not." Again, "every man is," "every man is not," "every non-man is," "every non-man is not," and the same reasoning holds in times beyond (the present). But when "is," is additionally