Miscellanies 8.9.26
Summary: Philosophers dispute whether causes produce bodies or incorporeal effects; Clement holds that causes produce incorporeal predicates such as “being cut,” which also solves the sophism that a house passes through your mouth when you say “house.”
Greek text · Stählin 2
Οἳ μὲν οὖν σωμάτων, οἳ δʼ ἀσωμάτων φασὶν εἶναι τὰ αἴτια· οἳ δὲ τὸ μὲν σῶμα κυρίως αἴτιόν φασι, τὸ δὲ ἀσώματον καταχρηστικῶς καὶ οἷον αἰτιωδῶς· ἄλλοι δʼ ἔμπαλιν ἀναστρέφουσι, τὰ μὲν ἀσώματα κυρίως αἴτια λέγοντες, καταχρηστικῶς δὲ τὰ σώματα, οἷον τὴν τομὴν ἐνέργειαν οὖσαν ἀσώματον εἶναι καὶ αἰτίαν εἶναι τοῦ τέμνειν, ἐνεργείας οὔσης καὶ ἀσωμάτου, καὶ τοῦ τέμνεσθαι ὁμοίως τῇ τε μαχαίρᾳ καὶ τῷ τεμνομένῳ σώμασιν οὖσιν. Τὸ ›τινῶν ἐστιν αἴτιον‹ λέγεται τριχῶς, τὸ μὲν ὅ ἐστιν αἴτιον. οἷον ὁ ἀνδριαντοποιός, τὸ δὲ οὗ ἐστιν αἴτιον, οἷον τοῦ γίνεσθαι τὸν ἀνδριάντα, τὸ δὲ ᾧ ἐστιν αἴτιον, ὥσπερ τῇ ὕλῃ· τῷ χαλκῷ γὰρ αἴτιός ἐστι τοῦ γίνεσθαι τὸν ἀνδριάντα. τὸ γίνεσθαι οὖν καὶ τὸ τέμνεσθαι, τὰ οὗ ἐστιν αἴτιον, ἐνέργειαι οὖσαι ἀσώματοί εἰσιν. Εἰς ὃν λόγον κατηγορημάτων ἤ, ὥς τινες, λεκτῶν (λεκτὰ γὰρ τὰ κατηγορήματα καλοῦσιν Κλεάνθης καὶ Ἀρχέδημος) αἴτια τὰ αἴτια· ἤ, ὅπερ καὶ μᾶλλον, τὰ μὲν κατηγορημάτων αἴτια λεχθήσεται, οἷον τοῦ ›τέμνεται‹, οὗ πτῶσις τὸ τέμνεσθαι, τὰ δʼ ἀξιωμάτων, ὡς τοῦ ›ναῦς γίνεται‹, οὗ πάλιν [ἡ] πτῶσίς ἐστι τὸ ναῦν γίνεσθαι· Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ προσηγοριῶν, οἷον τῶν τοιούτων, οἰκίας, νεώς, καύσεως, τομῆς. ἡ πτῶσις δὲ ἀσώματος εἶναι ὁμολογεῖται· διὸ καὶ τὸ σόφισμα ἐκεῖνο οὕτως λύεται· ›ὃ λέγεις, διέρχεταί σου διὰ τοῦ στόματος‹, ὅπερ ἀληθές, ›οἰκίαν δὲ λέγεις, οἰκία ἄρα διὰ τοῦ στόματός σου διέρχεται‹, ὅπερ ψεῦδος· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν οἰκίαν λέγομεν σῶμα οὖσαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν πτῶσιν ἀσώματον οὖσαν, ἧς οἰκία τυγχάνει.
English · Claude translation
Some say that causes are of bodies, others of incorporeal things; some say that the body is a cause in the proper sense and the incorporeal by extension and in a quasi-causal way; others turn it around, saying that incorporeal things are causes in the proper sense and bodies by extension: for example, that the cut, being an activity, is incorporeal and is the cause of cutting, which is an activity and incorporeal, and likewise of being cut, for both the knife and what is cut, which are bodies. “Of what things it is a cause” is said in three ways: that which is the cause, as the sculptor; that of which it is the cause, as of the statue's coming to be; and that for which it is the cause, as for the matter, for the sculptor is cause for the bronze of the statue's coming to be. Coming to be and being cut, then, the things of which it is a cause, are incorporeal, since they are activities. On this account causes are causes of predicates, or, as some say, of sayables (for Cleanthes and Archedemus call predicates sayables); or rather, and this is better, some will be called causes of predicates, for example of “is cut,” whose case is “being cut,” and others of propositions, as of “a ship comes to be,” whose case again is “a ship's coming to be”; but Aristotle says causes are of appellatives, such as house, ship, burning, cutting. The case is agreed to be incorporeal. Hence that sophism too is solved in this way: “What you say passes through your mouth,” which is true; “but you say ‘house’; therefore a house passes through your mouth,” which is false. For we do not say the house, which is a body, but the case, which is incorporeal, of which the house is the bearer.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The terms are Stoic: κατηγόρημα “predicate”, λεκτόν “sayable” (the incorporeal meaning of an expression), ἀξίωμα “proposition”, πτῶσις “case” (the grammatical form in which a predicate or noun is expressed), προσηγορία “appellative” (common noun). Cleanthes and Archedemus were Stoic philosophers. The clause “of which the house is the bearer” (ἧς οἰκία τυγχάνει) is compressed; the translation is interpretive.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/26/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/26/).
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