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Single Idea 10965

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / c. Types of substance ]

Full Idea

In 'Metaphysics' Aristotle changed his view, as in 'Categories' the substances, the basic realities, were particular items, notably individual men, horses, cabbages etc.

Gist of Idea

In earlier Aristotle the substances were particulars, not kinds

Source

report of Aristotle (Categories [c.331 BCE]) by Hugh Lawson-Tancred - Introductions to 'Metaphysics' p.178

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.178


A Reaction

The charge is that having successfully rebelled against Plato, Aristotle gradually succumbed to his teacher's influence, and ended up with a more platonist view. For anti-platonists like myself, the 'Categories' seems to be the key text.


The 20 ideas with the same theme [varieties of entity that can count as substances]:

Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle]
Speusippus suggested underlying principles for every substance, and ended with a huge list [Speussipus, by Aristotle]
Secondary substances do have subjects, so they are not ultimate in the ontology [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
In earlier Aristotle the substances were particulars, not kinds [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
A 'primary' substance is in each subject, with species or genera as 'secondary' substances [Aristotle]
Mature Aristotle sees organisms as the paradigm substances [Aristotle, by Pasnau]
Elements and physical objects are substances, but ideas and mathematics are not so clear [Aristotle]
Is a primary substance a foundation of existence, or the last stage of understanding? [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
Units are positionless substances, and points are substances with position [Aristotle]
Cut wood doesn't make a new substance, but seems to make separate subjects [William of Ockham]
Substances 'substand' (beneath accidents), or 'subsist' (independently) [Eustachius]
We can conceive of three sorts of substance: God, finite intelligence, and bodies [Locke]
We sort and name substances by nominal and not by real essence [Locke]
Substances mirror God or the universe, each from its own viewpoint [Leibniz]
Substance must necessarily involve progress and change [Leibniz]
Substances are everywhere in matter, like points in a line [Leibniz]
Descartes says there are two substance, Spinoza one, and Leibniz infinitely many [Cottingham]
Maybe there is only one substance, space-time or a quantum field [Heil]
We can ask for the nature of substance, about type of substance, and about individual substances [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
Scholastics use 'substantia' for thick concrete entities, and for thin metaphysical ones [Pasnau]