mata ton kategorion]. It is evident from
this that the categories can be regarded neither as purely logical nor
as purely metaphysical elements. They indicate the general forms or
ways in which Being can be predicated; they are determinations of
Being regarded as an object of thought, and consequently as matter of
speech. It becomes apparent also why the analysis of the categories
starts from the singular thing, for it is the primary form under which
all that is becomes object of knowledge, and the other categories
modify or qualify this real individual. [Greek: Panta de ta gignomena
hupo te tinos gignetai kai ek tinos kai ti. To de ti lego kath
hekasten kategorian e gar tode e poson e poion e pon]. (_Met._ p. 1032
a 13-15) ... The categories, therefore, are not logical forms, but
real predicates; they are the general modes in which Being may be
expressed. The definite thing, that which comes forward in the process
from potentiality to full actuality, can only appear and be spoken of
under forms of individuality, quality, quantity and so on. The nine
later categories all denote entity in a certain imperfect fashion.

The categories then are not to be regarded as heads of predicates, the
framework into which predicates can be thrown. They are real
determinations of Being--_allgemeine Bestimmtheiten_, as Hegel calls
them. They are not _summa genera_ of existences, still less are they
to be explained as a classification of namable things in general. The
objections Mill has taken to the list are entirely irrelevant, and
would only have significance if the categories were really--what they
are not--an exhaustive division of concrete existences. Grote's view
(_Aristotle_, i. 108) that Aristotle drew up his list by examining
Various popular propositions, and throwing the different predicates
into genera, "according as they stood in different logical relation to
the subject," has no foundation. The relation of the predicate
category to the subject is not entirely a logical one; it is a
relation of real existence, and wants the essential marks of the
prepositional form. The logical relations of [Greek: to on] are
provided for otherwise than by the categories.

Aristotle has given no intimation of the course of thought by which he
was led to his tenfold arrangement, and it seems hopeless to discover
it. Trendelenburg in various essays has worked out the idea th