Kitap 5
2
(a) In the first sense they are said to be numerically relative; either simply, or in a definite relation to numbers or to 1. E.g., the double in relation to 1 is a definite number; the many times as great is in a numerical relation to 1, but not in a definite relation such as this or that;
3
the relation of that which is 1.5 times something else to that something is a definite numerical relation to a number; and that which is (n+1)/n times something else is in an indefinite relation to a number, just as the many times as great is in an indefinite relation to 1.
4
The relation of that which exceeds to that which is exceeded is numerically quite indefinite, for number is commensurate, and is not predicated of the incommensurate; whereas that which exceeds, in relation to that which is exceeded, is so much plus something more; and this something more is indefinite, for it is indifferently equal or not equal to the so much.
5
Thus not only are all these things said to be relative in respect of number, but also the equal and like and same, though in another way: for all these terms are used in respect of one. Things are the same whose essence is one; like whose quality is one; equal whose quantity is one. Now one is the starting-point and standard of number; and so all these relations involve number, though not all in the same way.
