Book 1
3
Again, the word good is used in as many senses as the word is; for we may predicate good in the Category of Substance, for instance of God, or intelligence; in that of Quality—the excellences; in that of Quantity—moderate in amount; in that of Relation—useful; in that of Time—a favorable opportunity; in that of Place—a suitable habitatδίαιτα is used of the habitat of a species of animals, De mundo 398b 32; though it has been taken here to mean a favorable climate for human beings. In Aristoph. Frogs 114 it may mean a lodging, and later it denotes an apartment or suite of rooms, as in Pliny’s descriptions of Italian villas.; and so on. So clearly good cannot be a single and universal general notion; if it were, it would not be predicable in all the Categories, but only in one.
4
Again, things that come under a single Idea must be objects of a single science; hence there ought to be a single science dealing with all good things. But as a matter of fact there are a number of sciences even for the goods in one Category: for example, opportunity, for opportunity in war comes under the science of strategy, in disease under that of medicine; and the due amount in diet comes under medicine, in bodily exercise under gymnastics.
