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Single Idea 11382

[from 'Metaphysics' by Aristotle, in 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 3. Individual Essences ]

Full Idea

It seems that Aristotle thinks that the essence and the form is a particular, ...though a very different interpretation argues that, for Aristotle, the essence and form of a changing, material thing is a universal, namely the species of the thing.

Gist of Idea

Aristotle takes essence and form as a particular, not (as some claim) as a universal, the species

Source

report of Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], partic) by Vassilis Politis - Aristotle and the Metaphysics 7.5

Book Reference

Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.251


A Reaction

I am fairly thoroughly persuaded that Politis's view (the first half of this idea) is the correct interpretation, and it is certainly the one I find more congenial. The second one I associate with the erroneous idea of sortal essentialism, as in Wiggins.

Related Idea

Idea 11383 A definition is of the universal and of the kind [Aristotle]