Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 2 (1853).djvu/69

, makes the problem universal, which was laid down as particular, for he requires that to be acknowledged universal, which was allowed to be particular, since if it is present with one, he assumes it similarly present with all.

The problem then being indefinite, it is possible to subvert it in one way, as if a person said that pleasure is good or not good, and added nothing else in the definition. For if he said that a certain pleasure is good, we must show universally that no pleasure is, if the proposition is to be subverted. In like manner, also, if he said that a certain pleasure is not good, we must show universally that all is, for otherwise subversion is impossible; since if we have shown that a certain pleasure is not good, or that it is good, the proposition is not yet subverted. It is evident then, that subversion is possible in one way, but confirmation in two, for both whether we show universally that all pleasure is good, or that a certain pleasure is good, the proposition will have been proved. Likewise if it should be required to be argued that a certain pleasure is not good, if we have proved that no pleasure is good, or that a certain one is not good, we shall have argued in both ways, both universally and particularly, that a certain pleasure is not good. The thesis indeed being defined, it will be possible to subvert in two ways, as if it should be laid down that good is present with a certain pleasure, but with a certain (pleasure) is not present, since whether all pleasure, or no pleasure, be proved good, the proposition will be subverted. Still, if it has been admitted that one pleasure only is good, subversion is possible in three ways, for by showing that all, or that none, or that more (pleasures) than one, are good, we shall have subverted the proposition. Nevertheless, the thesis having been defined to a greater extent, as that prudence alone of the virtues is a science, subversion is possible in four ways, for it having been shown that every virtue is science, or that none, or that some other (is a science), as justice, or that prudence itself is not a science, the proposition will have been subverted.

It is also useful to attend to singulars, in which something was said to be inherent or not, as in