Return to Porphyry, Introduction
1. It is common to Genus and Accident to be predicated, as we have said, of many things; whether the Accidents be separable or inseparable.
2. For to be moved is predicated of many things; and blackness is predicated of crows, of Ethiopians, and of certain inanimate things.
3. But Genus differs from Accident in this; that Genus is prior to Species, but Accidents are posterior to Species.
4. For though inseparable Accident should be assumed, yet that of which it is the Accident is prior to the Accident.
5. And those things indeed which participate of Genus equally participate it; but the participants of Accident do not equally participate it.
6. For the participation of Accidents receives intension and remission; but this is not the case with the participation of Genera.
7. And Accidents indeed precedaneously subsist in individuals; but Genera and Species are by nature prior to individual Essences.
8. Genera also are predicated of the things under them, in answer to the question what a thing is; but Accidents in answer to the question, what kind of a thing it is, or how it subsists.
9. For on being asked what kind of a thing an Ethiopian is, you reply that he is black; or how Socrates is, you reply that he is sick or well.
Return to Porphyry, Introduction
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