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]