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Single Idea 11234

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / f. Primary being ]

Full Idea

Aristotle thinks there are three main candidates for primary being: the particular, the universal and the essence, and Aristotle will defend the third of these.

Gist of Idea

The three main candidates for primary being are particular, universal and essence; essence is the answer

Source

report of Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1028a33-6) by Vassilis Politis - Aristotle and the Metaphysics 1.4

Book Ref

Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.12

A Reaction

If you really want to understand this idea, you must study this bit of the text carefully, and examine the translation of key terms like 'ousia'. Lawson-Tancred's translation gives a very different picture from Politis's commentary!

The 15 ideas with the same theme [concept of a mode of being prior to all others]:

21820 Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus]
21822 Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One [Anaxagoras, by Plotinus]
21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
21818 Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato]
11286 Primary being must be more than mere indeterminate ultimate subject of predication [Politis on Aristotle]
11234 The three main candidates for primary being are particular, universal and essence; essence is the answer [Aristotle, by Politis]
11279 Primary being is either universals, or the basis of predication, or essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11293 Non-primary beings lack essence, or only have a derived essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11297 Primary being is both the essence, and the subject of predication [Aristotle, by Politis]
11232 Primary being ('proté ousia') exists in virtue of itself, not in relation to other things [Aristotle, by Politis]
21812 Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus]
21817 The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus]
21824 The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus]
22103 Being is basic to thought, and all other concepts are additions to being [Aquinas]
6920 Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach]