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I 4 CONCERNING BEING AND ESSENCE 

genus is indeterminate with respect to species, hence it is that, 
just as that which is genus according as it is predicated con- 
cerning species implies in its signification, although indis- 
tinctly, all that is determinate in species, thus likewise it fol- 
lows that what is species, according as it is predicated of the 
individual, signifies all that which is in the individual essen- 
tially although indistinctly. And in this mode the essence of 
Socrates is signified by the name of man, and as a consequence 
man is predicated of Socrates. But if the nature of the species 
be signified with the exclusion of designated matter, which is 
the principle of individuation, it will thus be disposed (se 
habebii) as a part (by means of the partitive mode). And in 
this mode it is signified by the name humanity, for humanity 
signifies that in virtue of which man is man. But designated 
matter is not that in virtue of which man is man; and, there- 
fore, in no mode is it contained among those things from 
which man possesses manness. Since therefore humanity in- 
cludes in its concept only those things from which man pos- 
sesses manness, it is clear that designated matter is excluded 
from or cut off from its signification. And since the part is not 
predicated of the whole, hence it is that humanity is not predi- 
cated either of man or of Socrates. Wherefore Avicenna says 1T 
that the quiddity of a composite is not the composite itself of 
which it is the quiddity, although the quiddity itself is com- 
posite; as for instance humanity, although it is composite, still 
is not man. Nay rather, it must be received in something which 
is designated matter. But since, as has been said, the designa- 
tion of species in respect to genus is by virtue of form, whereas 
the designation of the individual in respect to species is by 
virtue of matter, it follows therefore that the name signifying 
that whence the nature of genus is taken, with the exclusion of 
the determinate form perfecting the species, should signify the 
17 Avicenna, Met., V, c. 5, f. 90 a F.