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Single Idea 16172

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / a. Substance ]

Full Idea

The only thing which is not predicated of some underlying thing is substance, while everything is predicated of it. But the same goes for substances too: there is something underlying them too, which they come from. Plants from seeds, for example.

Gist of Idea

Substance is not predicated of anything - but it still has something underlying it, that originates it

Source

Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 190b01)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.26

A Reaction

[compressed] I presume 'substance' here is 'ousia'. Aristotle's quest is to pin down 'that which lies under', but this shows that if he identified it, he wouldn't have located what is ultimate. The explanation of a plant extends beyond the plant.

Related Idea

Idea 16173 Coming to be is by shape-change, addition, subtraction, composition or alteration [Aristotle]

The 41 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about notion of unified substances]:

16091 Is primary substance just an ultimate subject, or some aspect of a complex body? [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
11280 Primary being is 'that which lies under', or 'particular substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
1694 Substances have no opposites, and don't come in degrees (including if the substance is a man) [Aristotle]
11040 A single substance can receive contrary properties [Aristotle]
24058 The substance is the cause of a thing's being [Aristotle]
569 If substance is the basis of reality, then philosophy aims to understand substance [Aristotle]
592 The baffling question of what exists is asking about the nature of substance [Aristotle]
615 The Pre-Socratics were studying the principles, elements and causes of substance [Aristotle]
11231 'Ousia' is 'primary being' not 'primary substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
12076 Substance is prior in being separate, in definition, and in knowledge [Aristotle, by Witt]
11284 It is wrong to translate 'ousia' as 'substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
16172 Substance is not predicated of anything - but it still has something underlying it, that originates it [Aristotle]
16623 We only infer underlying natures by analogy, observing bronze of a statue, or wood of a bed [Aristotle]
6037 Stoics say matter has qualities, and substance underlies it, with no form or qualities [Stoic school, by Chalcidius]
16626 Substance is only grasped under the general heading of 'being' [Duns Scotus]
16776 Substance is an intrinsic thing, so parts of substances can't also be intrinsic things [Duns Scotus]
16667 Substances are incomplete unless they have modes [Suárez, by Pasnau]
3626 Knowing the attributes is enough to reveal a substance [Descartes]
16630 If we perceive an attribute, we infer the existence of some substance [Descartes]
8546 Powers are part of our idea of substances [Locke]
19349 The complete notion of a substance implies all of its predicates or attributes [Leibniz]
12943 Individuality is in the bond substance gives between past and future [Leibniz]
12716 The concept of forces or powers best reveals the true concept of substance [Leibniz]
12916 A body is a unified aggregate, unless it has an indivisible substance [Leibniz]
12919 Unity needs an indestructible substance, to contain everything which will happen to it [Leibniz]
12923 Every bodily substance must have a soul, or something analogous to a soul [Leibniz]
13197 The notion of substance is one of the keys to true philosophy [Leibniz]
12776 Every substance is alive [Leibniz]
5550 A substance could exist as a subject, but not as a mere predicate [Kant]
21981 The one substance is formless without the mediation of dialectical concepts [Hegel]
17553 We can retain the idea of 'substance', as indestructible mass or energy [Heisenberg]
23468 Apart from the facts, there is only substance [Wittgenstein]
4068 Traditional substance is separate from properties and capable of independent existence [Crane]
18507 Substances bear properties, so must be simple, and not consist of further substances [Heil]
13100 Maybe 'substance' is more of a mass-noun than a count-noun [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
18617 Substances, unlike aggregates, can survive a change of parts [Mumford]
7936 Unlike bundles of properties, substances have an intrinsic unity [Macdonald,C]
16617 Corpuscularian critics of scholasticism say only substances exist [Pasnau]
16628 Corpuscularianism promised a decent account of substance [Pasnau]
16741 Scholastics wanted to treat Aristotelianism as physics, rather than as metaphysics [Pasnau]
16777 If crowds are things at all, they seem to be Substances, since they bear properties [Pasnau]