ARISTOTLE 



plane) — a Necessity which embraces the whole field of 

 yeveais in the universe at large, i.e., the whole process 

 of the seasonal and cyclic transformations of the " ele- 

 ments," and the whole process of the cyclical generation 

 of animals and plants (see App. A §§ 12 ff.) ; and which 

 even further still {ibid. ; and see P. A. 639 b 24) includes 

 those things which do not pass through a process of 

 formation (ydvecns) at all, but persist eternal and immut- 

 able. In this context Aristotle lays down {G. 4' G- 

 337 b 35) that i^ dvdyKTjs and del coincide ; thus 

 " eternity " — whether it be individual eternity, as of the 

 stars, or specific eternity, as of plants and animals — and 

 Necessity are mutuallj' interconnected (see App. A § 14) ; 

 thus, that which always is or always yiyveraL, is, or 

 yiyverat., of necessity ; that which is, or yCyverai, of 

 necessity, is, or yiyverat, always. This meaning of 

 " absolute " Necessity, however, does not enter directly 

 into the G.A., though it is once touched upon in passing 

 (at 770 b 12 ; cf. 742 b 26 if.), and it is incidentally 

 implied to some extent in the passages of Books II and 

 IV referred to and supplemented in the Appendix, A 

 and B.« 



Aoyos 



(10) Frequently in the translation, rather than represent 

 Xoyos by an inadequate or misleading word, I have 

 transliterated it by logos.'' This serves the useful pur- 

 pose of reminding the reader that we have here a term 

 of wide and varied application, with which a number of 

 correlated conceptions are associated, one or other of 

 which may be uppermost in a particular case. The 

 fundamental idea of Xoyos, as its connexion with Xeyeiv 

 shows, is that of something spoken or uttered, more 

 especially a rational utterance or rational explanation, 

 expressing a thing's nature and the plan of it ; hence 

 Xoyos can denote the defining formula, the definition of 

 a thing's essence, of its essential being (as often in the 

 phrase Xoyos rrjs ovalas), expressing the structure or 

 character of the object to be defined. See also § 1 above. 



" Other modes of Necessity not relevant to G.A. are here omitted. 

 * The less technical meanings are translated in the normal way. 



xliv 



