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Two opposites cannot coexist in the same thing in the same respect. Either they cannot both be true or both be false, or they can coincide in one of these two ways. For they are opposed by negation and affirmation, which is the opposition of contradiction. Contradiction is the difference between two propositions in negation and affirmation such that, by their very nature, they cannot both be true or both be false. For example:

“Zayd is an animal”; “Zayd is not an animal.”

A distinctive consequence of the impossibility of both alternatives being true or both being false is that there is no intermediate between them, nor does either alternative undergo transformation in the same respect. They cannot both be true or both be false. For an existent being’s being intrinsically necessary and its being intrinsically contingent can neither coexist nor both be absent.

Thus, if you adopt this classification, defining the two contradictories as follows:

“Two contradictories can neither coexist nor both be absent,”

then these two can neither coexist nor both be absent, yet they are not negation and affirmation. It is therefore incorrect to restrict contradictories—which can neither coexist nor both be absent—to negation and affirmation. Two attributes—two things—have thus been established that can neither coexist nor both be absent, yet this falls outside the four categories.

Accordingly, someone who regards death as a positive existent property may say that a thing’s necessarily possessing either life or death belongs to this category. The same applies to knowledge and ignorance, deafness, muteness, and similar attributes.