{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "aristotle.metaphysics",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/aristotle/metaphysics/livre-5/passage-14/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Metaphysics",
    "author": "Aristotle",
    "date": "4th century BCE; transmitted as a layered collection",
    "summary": "Metaphysics proceeds through distinctions, objections, and causal inquiry. The surviving text has the density of a school treatise, not a transcribed conversation.",
    "learning": "Identify the exact question asked of being, distinguish substance, cause, potentiality, and actuality, then test which difficulty each distinction resolves.",
    "long_summary": "Canonical identity follows the CTS book and section. The critical Greek, historical English translation, and AI-generated French translation remain three aligned manifestations.\n\nThe books do not present a system cast in one piece: they revisit causes, being, substance, potentiality, and actuality through several inquiries. An isolated formula must not conceal those internal tensions.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "World of 1989",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet.",
        "science": "Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration.",
        "medicine": "CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits.",
        "transport": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods.",
        "agriculture": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs.",
        "communication": "Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic.",
        "clothing": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet. Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration. CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods. Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "greek-roman-traditions",
        "label": "Greek and Roman traditions"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "grc",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/aristotle/metaphysics/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 142,
            "role": "complete_aligned_treatise",
            "sha256": "cc4a1af60112ea7f98b385f557ee598b87a62e2457ee288cae71f63f3cfdc02d",
            "source_id": "perseus-grc"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/aristotle/metaphysics/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 142,
            "role": "complete_aligned_treatise",
            "sha256": "8da2bf9dc46a1f562c63821cf39ceb5a375ad60826feb518ca4479033d69be0e",
            "source_id": "perseus-en"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/aristotle/metaphysics/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-13",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 142,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "9ec0b903f1448863e575098ef9766536f16baf848e3e40d466639197fc1cf6b6",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "affects",
            "label": "Affects"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "knowledge",
            "label": "Knowledge"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "necessity",
            "label": "Necessity"
        },
        {
            "id": "prohairesis",
            "label": "Moral choice"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "substance",
            "label": "Substance"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "virtue",
            "label": "Virtue"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "aristotle.metaphysics"
    ],
    "passages": 142,
    "word_count": 109138,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 109138,
        "fr": 113943,
        "grc": 78979
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "book-section-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "book",
                "label_fr": "Livre",
                "label_en": "Book"
            },
            {
                "key": "section",
                "label_fr": "Section",
                "label_en": "Section"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Section",
        "leaf_en": "Section"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:aristotle.metaphysics:5.14",
    "canonical_ref": "5.14",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "τὸ ποιὸν λέγεται ἕνα μὲν τρόπον ἡ διαφορὰ τῆς οὐσίας, οἷον ποιόν τι ἄνθρωπος ζῷον ὅτι δίπουν, ἵππος δὲ τετράπουν, καὶ κύκλος ποιόν τι σχῆμα ὅτι ἀγώνιον, ὡς τῆς διαφορᾶς τῆς κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ποιότητος οὔσης· —ἕνα μὲν δὴ τρόπον τοῦτον λέγεται ἡ ποιότης διαφορὰ οὐσίας, ἕνα δὲ ὡς τὰ ἀκίνητα καὶ τὰ μαθηματικά, ὥσπερ οἱ ἀριθμοὶ ποιοί τινες, οἷον οἱ σύνθετοι καὶ μὴ μόνον ἐφʼ ἓν ὄντες ἀλλʼ ὧν μίμημα τὸ ἐπίπεδον καὶ τὸ στερεόν (οὗτοι δʼ εἰσὶν οἱ ποσάκις ποσοὶ ἢ ποσάκις ποσάκις ποσοί), καὶ ὅλως ὃ παρὰ τὸ ποσὸν ὑπάρχει ἐν τῇ οὐσίᾳ· οὐσία γὰρ ἑκάστου ὃ ἅπαξ, οἷον τῶν ἓξ οὐχ ὃ δὶς ἢ τρὶς εἰσὶν ἀλλʼ ὃ ἅπαξ· ἓξ γὰρ ἅπαξ ἕξ. ἔτι ὅσα πάθη τῶν κινουμένων οὐσιῶν, οἷον θερμότης καὶ ψυχρότης, καὶ λευκότης καὶ μελανία, καὶ βαρύτης καὶ κουφότης, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, καθʼ ἃ λέγονται καὶ ἀλλοιοῦσθαι τὰ σώματα μεταβαλλόντων. ἔτι κατʼ ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν καὶ ὅλως τὸ κακὸν καὶ ἀγαθόν. σχεδὸν δὴ κατὰ δύο τρόπους λέγοιτʼ ἂν τὸ ποιόν, καὶ τούτων ἕνα τὸν κυριώτατον· πρώτη μὲν γὰρ ποιότης ἡ τῆς οὐσίας διαφορά (ταύτης δέ τι καὶ ἡ ἐν τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς ποιότης μέρος· διαφορὰ γάρ τις οὐσιῶν, ἀλλʼ ἢ οὐ κινουμένων ἢ οὐχ ᾗ κινούμενα), τὰ δὲ πάθη τῶν κινουμένων ᾗ κινούμενα, καὶ αἱ τῶν κινήσεων διαφοραί. ἀρετὴ δὲ καὶ κακία τῶν παθημάτων μέρος τι· διαφορὰς γὰρ δηλοῦσι τῆς κινήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐνεργείας, καθʼ ἃς ποιοῦσιν ἢ πάσχουσι καλῶς ἢ φαύλως τὰ ἐν κινήσει ὄντα· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὡδὶ δυνάμενον κινεῖσθαι ἢ ἐνεργεῖν ἀγαθὸν τὸ δʼ ὡδὶ καὶ ἐναντίως μοχθηρόν. μάλιστα δὲ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ κακὸν σημαίνει τὸ ποιὸν ἐπὶ τῶν ἐμψύχων, καὶ τούτων μάλιστα ἐπὶ τοῖς ἔχουσι προαίρεσιν.",
            "source_id": "perseus-grc",
            "translation_type": "critical_original_language"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Quality means (a) in one sense, the differentia of essence; e.g., a man is an animal of a certain quality because he is two-footed; and so is a horse, because it is four-footed. Also a circle is a geometrical figure of a certain quality, because it has no angles; which shows that the essential differentia is quality. In this one sense, then, quality means differentia of essence; but (b) in another it is used as of immovable and mathematical objects, in the sense that numbers are in a way qualitative—e.g. such as are composite and are represented geometrically not by a line but by a plane or solid (these are products respectively of two and of three factors)—and in general means that which is present besides quantity in the essence. For the essence of each number is that which goes into it once; e.g. that of 6 is not what goes twice or three times, but what goes once; for 6 is once 6. (c) All affections of substance in motion in respect of which bodies become different when they (the affections) change—e.g. heat and cold, whiteness and blackness, heaviness and lightness, etc. (d) The term is used with reference to goodness and badness, and in general to good and bad. Thus there are, roughly speaking, two meanings which the term quality can bear, and of these one is more fundamental than the other. Quality in the primary sense is the differentia of the essence; and quality in numbers falls under this sense, because it is a kind of differentia of essences, but of things either not in motion or not qua in motion. Secondly, there are the affections of things in motion qua in motion, and the differentiae of motions. Goodness and badness fall under these affections, because they denote differentiae of the motion or functioning in respect of which things in motion act or are acted upon well or badly. For that which can function or be moved in such-and-such a way is good, and that which can function in such-and-such a way and in the contrary way is bad. Quality refers especially to good and bad in the case of living things, and of these especially in the case of such as possess choice.",
            "translator": "Hugh Tredennick, 1933-1935",
            "source_id": "perseus-en",
            "translation_type": "historical_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "Qualité signifie : a) en un sens, la différence de l’essence ; par exemple, un homme est un animal d’une certaine qualité parce qu’il est bipède ; et un cheval l’est aussi, parce qu’il est quadrupède. De même, un cercle est une figure géométrique d’une certaine qualité parce qu’il n’a pas d’angles, ce qui montre que la différence essentielle est une qualité. En ce premier sens, donc, qualité signifie différence de l’essence ; b) en un autre sens, le terme s’emploie à propos des objets immobiles et mathématiques, en ce que les nombres sont d’une certaine façon qualitatifs, par exemple ceux qui sont composés et qui sont représentés géométriquement non par une ligne, mais par une surface ou un solide (ce sont respectivement les produits de deux et de trois facteurs) ; et il signifie en général ce qui, dans l’essence, est présent en plus de la quantité. Car l’essence de chaque nombre est ce qui entre en lui une seule fois ; par exemple, celle de 6 n’est pas ce qui y entre deux ou trois fois, mais ce qui y entre une fois, car 6 est une fois 6. c) Toutes les affections de la substance en mouvement selon lesquelles les corps deviennent différents lorsque ces affections changent, par exemple la chaleur et le froid, la blancheur et la noirceur, la lourdeur et la légèreté, etc. d) Le terme s’emploie par référence à la bonté et à la méchanceté, et, en général, au bon et au mauvais. Ainsi, en gros, le terme qualité peut recevoir deux sens, dont l’un est plus fondamental que l’autre. La qualité au sens premier est la différence de l’essence ; et la qualité dans les nombres relève de ce sens, parce qu’elle est une sorte de différence des essences, mais d’êtres qui soit ne sont pas en mouvement, soit ne sont pas considérés en tant qu’ils sont en mouvement. En second lieu viennent les affections des choses en mouvement en tant qu’elles sont en mouvement, et les différences des mouvements. La bonté et la méchanceté relèvent de ces affections, parce qu’elles désignent des différences du mouvement ou du fonctionnement selon lesquelles les choses en mouvement agissent ou pâtissent bien ou mal. En effet, ce qui peut fonctionner ou être mû de telle ou telle manière est bon, et ce qui peut fonctionner de telle ou telle manière et de la manière contraire est mauvais. La qualité se rapporte surtout au bon et au mauvais dans le cas des êtres vivants, et, parmi ceux-ci, surtout dans le cas de ceux qui possèdent le choix.",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-13",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "56c6f0b859aeb07bc0a7dcc34171d04dc4c7433f05932ddb602f903f8708cd05"
}