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Ideas for '', 'Letter to Weber' and 'Posterior Analytics'

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5 ideas

9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 6. Nihilism about Objects
1687 Why are being terrestrial and a biped combined in the definition of man, but being literate and musical aren't? [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: Why will a man be a two-footed terrestrial animal and not an animal and terrestrial? Assumptions do not make it necessary that what is predicated form a unity - rather, it is as if the same man were musical and literate.
     From: Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE], 92a30)
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / c. Types of substance
1681 Units are positionless substances, and points are substances with position [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: A unit is a positionless substance, and a point a substance having position.
     From: Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE], 87a36)
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 4. Essence as Definition
12146 Definitions recognise essences, so are not themselves essences [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: If a definition is the recognition of some essence, it is clear that such items are not essences.
     From: Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE], 90b17)
     A reaction: So definitions are not themselves essences (as some modern thinkers claim). The idea seems obvious to me, but it is a warning against a simplistic view of Aristotelian essences, and a reminder that such things are real, not verbal.
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 7. Essence and Necessity / c. Essentials are necessary
17039 The predicates of a thing's nature are necessary to it [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: Whatever is predicated in what something is is necessary.
     From: Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE], 96b03)
     A reaction: This does NOT say that the essence is just the necessities. He goes on to say to say separately that certain properties of a triplet are part of the essence, as well as being necessary. This shows the nature of a thing is also necessary.
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 8. Essence as Explanatory
11994 Aristotelian essences are properties mentioned at the starting point of a science [Aristotle, by Kung]
     Full Idea: As Aristotle uses the term 'essence', only those properties which are mentioned in or relatively close to the starting points of the science will be essential.
     From: report of Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE]) by Joan Kung - Aristotle on Essence and Explanation II
     A reaction: I take this to be the correct way to understand Aristotelian essence - as something understood by its role in scientific explanations. We may, of course, work back to the starting point of a science, by disentangling the mess in the middle.