Book 5
3
(2.) A false statement is the statement of what is not, in so far as the statement is false. Hence every definition is untrue of anything other than that of which it is true; e.g., the definition of a circle is untrue of a triangle. Now in one sense there is only one definition of each thing, namely that of its essence; but in another sense there are many definitions,Here Aristotle is using the word λόγος not in the strict sense of definition but in the looser sense of a statement about something. since the thing itself, and the thing itself qualified (e.g. Socrates and cultured Socrates) are in a sense the same.
4
But the false definition is not strictly a definition of anything. Hence it was foolish of AntisthenesThe Cynic; contemporary and renegade disciple of Socrates. He taught that definition, and even predication, are strictly speaking impossible. A simple entity can only be named; a complex entity can only be defined by naming its simple constituents. Cf. Aristot. Met. 8.3.7, 8; Plat. Theaet. 201d-202c, Plat. Soph. 251b, c. to insist that nothing can be described except by its proper definition: one predicate for one subject; from which it followed that contradiction is impossible, and falsehoodCf. Plat. Euthyd. 283e-284c, 286c, d. nearly so. But it is possible to describe everything not only by its own definition but by that of something else; quite falsely, and yet also in a sense truly—e.g., 8 may be described as double by the definition of 2.
