Chapter 56

Having is a substance around a substance. It means containing or being contained without being any part of the other thing. Now, a tunic contains, and so does armor and the like, but a ring is contained, as well as any other small object of the sort. Both the thing containing and the thing contained must be substances, because, if the one were a substance and the other an accident, as would be knowledge and the knower, it would no longer fall into the category of having or state. The differences of having correspond to those of beings. Thus, there is either animate or inanimate, and we are said to have either an animate thing like a boy, a horse, and so forth, or an inanimate thing like a ring, a sandal, and the so forth. The word to have is used equivocally in several other meanings which we shall discuss later on.

[43] {Περὶ τοῦ ἔχειν.} Τὸ ἔχειν ἐστὶν οὐσία περὶ οὐσίαν. Δηλοῖ δὲ τὸ περιέχειν ἢ περιέχεσθαι καὶ μὴ εἶναί τι μέρος τοῦ πράγματος. Καὶ περιέχει μὲν χιτών, ὅπλα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, περιέχεται δὲ δακτύλιος καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον τοιοῦτον σμικρόν. Δεῖ δὲ καὶ τὸ περιέχον καὶ τὸ περιεχόμενον οὐσίας εἶναι: εἰ γὰρ τὸ μὲν οὐσία εἴη, τὸ δὲ συμβεβηκός, ὡς ἐπιστήμων καὶ ἐπιστήμη, οὐκέτι ὑπὸ τὸ ἔχειν ἀνάγεται. Διαφοραὶ δὲ τοῦ ἔχειν γίνονται κατὰ τὴν διαφορὰν τῶν ὄντων: ἢ γὰρ ἔμψυχόν ἐστιν ἢ ἄψυχον, καὶ ἔμψυχον μὲν ἔχειν λεγόμεθα ὡς παῖδα, ἵππον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἄψυχον δὲ ὡς δακτύλιον, ὑπόδημα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα. Λέγεται δὲ τὸ ἔχειν καὶ κατὰ πολλῶν ἑτέρων σημαινομένων ὁμωνύμως, περὶ ὧν ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν.