On Interpratation   

is bad is one concerning that which is accidental. Thus the

judgement which denies the true judgement is more really false than

that which positively asserts the presence of the contrary quality.

But it is the man who forms that judgement which is contrary to the

true who is most thoroughly deceived, for contraries are among the

things which differ most widely within the same class. If then of

the two judgements one is contrary to the true judgement, but that

which is contradictory is the more truly contrary, then the latter, it

seems, is the real contrary. The judgement that that which is good

is bad is composite. For presumably the man who forms that judgement

must at the same time understand that that which is good is not good.

Further, the contradictory is either always the contrary or never;

therefore, if it must necessarily be so in all other cases, our

conclusion in the case just dealt with would seem to be correct. Now

where terms have no contrary, that judgement is false, which forms the

negative of the true; for instance, he who thinks a man is not a man

forms a false judgement. If then in these cases the negative is the

contrary, then the principle is universal in its application.

Again, the judgement that that which is not good is not good is

parallel with the judgement that that which is good is good. Besides

these there is the judgement that that which is good is not good,

parallel with the judgement that that that is not good is good. Let us

consider, therefore, what would form the contrary of the true

judgement that that which is not good is not good. The judgement

that it is bad would, of course, fail to meet the case, since two true

judgements are never contrary and this judgement might be true at

the same time as that with which it is connected. For since some

things which are not good are bad, both judgements may be true. Nor is

the judgement that it is not bad the contrary, for this too might be

true, since both qualities might be predicated of the same subject. It

remains, therefore, that of the judgement concerning that which is not

good, that it is not good, the contrary judgement is that it is