116 //-3
But a 'poesis' is a poem which signifies in virtue of containing an imitation
of divine and human affairs.
A definition is, as Antipater says in book one of his On Definitions, an
analytical statment [logos] expressed precisely, or as Chrysippus says in
his On Definitions, the rendering of what is proper [to the thing]. An
outline is a statement which introduces [us] to the objects by a [general]
impression, or a definition which introduces the force of the definition
[proper] in simpler form. A genus is a conjunction of several inseparable
concepts, for example, 'animal'; for this includes the particular animals.
- A concept is a phantasm of the intellect, and is neither a something
nor a qualified thing, but [rather] a quasi-something and a quasi-qualified
thing; for example, there arises an impression of a horse even when no
horse is present.
A species is that which is included by a genus, as man is included in
animal. The most generic is that which, being a genus, does not have a
genus, i.e., being; the most specific is that which, being a species, does
not have a species, for example, Socrates.
Division is the cutting of a genus into its immediate species, for
example: of animals, some are rational and some are irrational. Counter-
division is a division of the genus into a species in virtue of its opposite,
as when things are divided by negation, for example: of beings, some are
good and some are not good. Subdivision is a division following on a
division, for example: of beings some are good and some are not good,
and of things not good some are bad and some are indifferent.
- A partitioning is an arrangement of a genus into its topics, according
to Krinis; for example: of goods some belong to the soul and some belong
to the body.
Ambiguity is a speech which signifies two or even more things, linguis-
tically and strictly and in virtue of the same usage, so that by means of
this speech several things are understood at the same time.^9 For example,
auletrispeptoke; for by means of this [speech] are indicated something like
this "a house fell three times" and something like this "a flute girl fell".
According to Posidionius, dialectic is a knowledge of what is true,
what is false and what is neither. And, as Chrysippus says, it is concerned
with signifiers and what is signified. This, then, is the sort of thing said
by the Stoics in their study of utterance.
- In the topic of objects and things signified are placed the account
- 'Speech' is utterance articulable in letters(§ 56 above). Our translation has been improved
by reflection on ch. 4 of Catherine Atherton's excellent book, The Stoics on Ambiguity
(Cambridge 1993). The ambiguity in the example which follows is untranslatable, but
stems from alternate divisions into words of the same syllables.
