Aristotelian Ontology, Universals, and Physics

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering library research tools, Aristotle's Categories and ontology, the problem of universals, Platonic Forms, and Aristotelian physics and teleology.

Publication Finder

A library website search tool that allows students to look up specific academic journals to determine whether the university provides access to them.

Request It

A free library borrowing service that enables students to request and obtain research articles and materials that are not immediately accessible online.

J. L. Ackrill

A translator of Aristotle's Categories who translates the terminology of predication using the phrase "said of a subject."

Said of a subject

In Aristotle's classification of existing things, categories, kinds, or types (such as "man" or "dog") that are predicated of an individual entity but do not physically reside inside it.

In a subject

In Aristotle's ontology, individual properties or characteristics (such as a specific instance of grammatical knowledge or a specific color) that belong inside an entity but cannot be predicated of it as its kind.

Particulars (Individuals)

Entities (such as an individual man or an individual horse) that are neither said of a subject nor in a subject, serving as the primary entities that possess properties and belong to kinds.

Ousia (Substance)

The Greek word translated into English as "substance" or "being," which for Aristotle refers primarily to concrete individual things whose existence is ontologically prior to kinds or species.

Universals

Features or characteristics shared by many individuals, each of which is said to instantiate or exemplify that feature.

Nominalism

The philosophical position regarding the problem of universals that denies universals exist as real entities in the world, asserting that general categories are merely features of language.

Conceptualism

The philosophical position that universals are not independent real entities in the external world, but instead exist strictly as concepts or thoughts within the human mind.

Realism (about universals)

The philosophical view held by both Plato and Aristotle asserting that universals are real things that belong in ontology, rather than being mere words or mental thoughts.

Platonic Forms

Abstract, eternal, immutable, and absolute entities that exist independently of human minds and physical matter, holding primary being over secondary, derivative individual objects.

Naturally occurring things

Entities defined in Aristotle's Physics Book II, Chapter 1 as possessing an internal principle of motion and stability with respect to place, growth, decay, or alteration, distinguishing them from artificial artifacts.

Aristotelian Motion

A broad concept of change within things, encompassing spatial locomotion, growth, decay, and alteration, rather than merely movement from place to place.

Teleology

A central concept in Aristotle's physics and metaphysics holding that natural motion and change are directed toward a specific end, goal, or natural place, such as earthy substance naturally moving toward the center of the cosmos.