Probably being a cloak is not an essence at all. Either they require something else to be added to them (to get an essence) (like pale does), or they are adding in too much (like cloak or pale man is). Is there an essence of cloak? No, there is no essence for things that occur by addition.
Aristotle calls such a composite "cloak" as if to suppose that it is really some one thing we can call by one name. Another kind of thing without a true essence is the composite, e.g. The account of a thing's essence describes but does not mention the thing. I,4), yet surface is not the same as being pale, nor is pale some combination of pale plus surface.
Pale belongs in its own right to surface (compare Post. Basically, such a quality will always have to include a substance in its definition. One kind of thing without the right sort of essence is a non-substance such as a quality like pale. Essence is not just anything said in its own right. Let us next study essence: what a thing is said to be in its own right.įirst, we need to rule some things out. Yet substance is supposed to be separable (identifiable, distinct) and a "this."Īlso, if form is prior to matter in a compound, we can rule out the compound (as candidate for subject) just as much as the matter.Ĭh. But this means matter has nothing definite or specifiable about it. unacceptable? Matter is the underlying thing everything else, such as quantity, quality, etc., is predicated of it. However: this is an inadequate answer to the question, what is substance? The subject may be the matter, the form, or the compound (bronze, shape of a horse, a bronze statue of a horse). What is subject? It seems most of all to be substance: other things are said of it, and it is not said of other things. There are four main candidates for substance: essence, universal, genus, and subject. We can ask many questions here: which things are substances? Are there non-perceptible substances?Ĭh. The most evident examples of substances are bodies, perhaps the simple bodies, and/or the limits/surfaces of bodies. Substance is primary: in nature, in account (definition), and in knowledge.Ĭh. Aristotle's Metaphysics Z and H Aristotle's Metaphysicsīooks VII and VII (Z and H): Highlights Philosophy 201, Fall 1996ħ43-2993, readings are in Ancient Greek Philosophy, ed.
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