Aristotle: Subject of Metaphysics & the Categories | Aristotle on Substance & Accidents

Aristotle is trying to answer a major philosophical problem:

What does it mean for something to be?
He argues that “being” is not one single thing, but had many meanings

“Being” is said and understood in many ways”

This becomes the foundation of metaphysics

Main Points

1. Being is said in many ways

2. The Parmenides Problem (recap)

3. Aristotle’s solution: Subject vs Accident

4. The four-fold division of being

5. The ten categories of being

6. Metaphysics - study of being as being

Being is said in many ways

Aristotle rejects the idea that “being” has only one meaning. Instead, we understand being through analogy —- we compare different kinds of being to each other.

Reasoning: If “being” had only one meaning, we couldn’t explain differences between things like substances, qualities, or actions

The Parmenides Problem (recap)

Plato’s Parmenides creates a dilemma about Forms:

• If the whole form is in each thing → the form becomes “separate from itself”

• If only part of the form is in each thing → the form becomes many, not one

  • “If the whole form is in each participant”

  • “If only part of each form is present”

Reasoning- Plato’s theory struggles to explain how one universal can exist in many individuals without contradiction

1. Aristotle’s solution: Subject vs Accident

Aristotle solves the dilemma by distinguishing:

• Said of a subject (what something is)

• Present in a subject (what something has)

  • Ex. from text = “White is said of the particular color that is present in this cat”

Reasoning- This avoids Plato’s problem because qualities (like “white”) don’t need to be whole or divided — the simply inhere in a subject

1. The four-fold division of being

Aristotle divides being using two questions:

1. Is it said of a subject?

2. Is it present in a subject?

This creates four types: *check image

Reasoning- This helps categorize everything that exists without confusing substances with qualities or universals with particulars

1. The ten categories of being

Aristotle lists 10 ways something can “be”

These are the fundamental types of existence

• Substance- What is it? (the thing itself)

• Quantity- How much?

• Quality- What is it like?

• Relation- Compared to what?

• When- Time

• Where- Place

• Position - How arranged?

• Habit- What condition/state?

• Action- What is it doing?

• Passion - How is it being affected?

Reasoning- these categories allow us to describe anything that exists by identifying what kind of being it has

1. Metaphysics - study of being as being

Text concludes: “Metaphysics is the study of being as being… being is said in many ways.. being is known analogously”

And most importantly: “To study being is to primarily study substance”

Reasoning- Substance is the foundation of all other categories— qualities, quantities and actions all depend on substance to exist

Takeaway Keypoints

• “Being” had many meanings, not one

• Aristotle solves Plato’s problem by distinguishing what something is vs what is in it

• He divides being into four types and ten categories

• Metaphysics studies being in the most general way, focusing mainly on substance

Aristotle on Substance & Accidents

Aristotle argues the being appears in many ways, and we understand it analogously— by comparing different kinds of being

• “Being presents itself in a multitude of different ways. It is known analogously.”

But among all the ways of being, substance is primary. Everything else— qualities, quantities, relations— are accidents that exist in a substance

Accidents vs Substances

The Fourfold Table

What is an Accident?

Substance is primary

Analogy of Health

Key Terms - Essence

Universal

Genus & Species

What Substance is Not

What Substance Is

Takeaways Points