more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
What is contrary to a good thing is necessarily bad, as we see with health and sickness. But the contrary of bad is sometimes good, sometimes not, as we see with excess, opposed by both deficiency and moderation.
Gist of Idea
The contrary of good is bad, but the contrary of bad is either good or another evil
Source
Aristotle (Categories [c.331 BCE], 13b36)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Categories and De Interpretatione', ed/tr. Ackrill,J.R. [OUP 1963], p.38
| 192 | Only one thing can be contrary to something [Plato] |
| 1697 | The contrary of good is bad, but the contrary of bad is either good or another evil [Aristotle] |
| 1698 | Both sides of contraries need not exist (as health without sickness, white without black) [Aristotle] |
| 24052 | From one thing alone we can infer its contrary [Aristotle] |
| 4333 | Contraries are by definition as far distant as possible from one another [Aristotle] |
| 1708 | In "Callias is just/not just/unjust", which of these are contraries? [Aristotle] |
| 608 | There is no middle ground in contradiction, but there is in contrariety [Aristotle] |
| 1684 | Two falsehoods can be contrary to one another [Aristotle] |
| 16854 | Contrary pairs entail contradictions; one member entails negation of the other [Lipton] |