PHL 301 1st Edition Lecture 20Outline of Last Lecture I.The categoriesII.Criteria for substanceIII.Secondary SubstanceIV.Realisma.Vaisesika and ParticularismOutline of Current LectureI. Substances’ contrary qualitiesII. Essencesa. Essential propertiesb. Accidental propertiesIII. What is a substance?Current LectureSubstances change over time. Parmenides says that change can’t happen, and Heraclitussays things change constantly and every change produces a new object. Aristotle, however, says that a substance can have different qualities, but it will still be the same substance.Essences are what something is by its very nature. The essence of “X” is encompassed bywhat it is to be X, what X is by virtue of itself, what X is by its very nature, and what is expressed by a definition of X, or “a formula for the nature of X.” Accidental properties are easy to think of.They are contingent, so an object can lose them and remain the same object. For example, a candle can melt and lost the accidental property “solid” and still remain a candle. On the other hand, essential properties are the qualities that are necessary to a thing. These are much more difficult to think of. What exactly makes a candle a candle? Even more curiously, what makes a certain person that person? Is personality essential? Can a person have been raised by completely different adopted parents and still be considered the same person, besides biologically? This depends on your idea of what a person is.A substance is that of which other things are predicated. They are Aristotle’s solution to how we know universals: we abstract them from experience through generalization. St. Thomas Aquivius views essences as causes. Quiddity is the “whatness” of an object, essence is the These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.necessary qualities of it, and nature is what makes it what it is, such as a chemical formula at the molecular level. Quiddity, essence, and nature are separate
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