this way we may perhaps find out a sense in which not-being may be affirmed
to have being. Now the highest kinds are being, rest, motion; and of
these, rest and motion exclude each other, but both of them are included in
being; and again, they are the same with themselves and the other of each
other. What is the meaning of these words, 'same' and 'other'? Are there
two more kinds to be added to the three others? For sameness cannot be
either rest or motion, because predicated both of rest and motion; nor yet
being; because if being were attributed to both of them we should attribute
sameness to both of them. Nor can other be identified with being; for then
other, which is relative, would have the absoluteness of being. Therefore
we must assume a fifth principle, which is universal, and runs through all
things, for each thing is other than all other things. Thus there are five
principles: (1) being, (2) motion, which is not (3) rest, and because
participating both in the same and other, is and is not (4) the same with
itself, and is and is not (5) other than the other. And motion is not
being, but partakes of being, and therefore is and is not in the most
absolute sense. Thus we have discovered that not-being is the principle of
the other which runs through all things, being not excepted. And 'being'
is one thing, and 'not-being' includes and is all other things. And not-
being is not the opposite of being, but only the other. Knowledge has many
branches, and the other or difference has as many, each of which is
described by prefixing the word 'not' to some kind of knowledge. The not-
beautiful is as real as the beautiful, the not-just as the just. And the
essence of the not-beautiful is to be separated from and opposed to a
certain kind of existence which is termed beautiful. And this opposition
and negation is the not-being of which we are in search, and is one kind of
being. Thus, in spite of Parmenides, we have not only discovered the
existence, but also the nature of not-being--that nature we have found to
be relation. In the communion of different kinds, being and other mutually
interpenetrate; other is, but is other than being, and other than each and