Categories
- Philosophy 1
- Spring, 2002
- G. J. Mattey
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Aristotle
- Born 384 BC
- From Stagira, ancient Macedonia
- Student and lecturer in Platos Academy
- Teacher of Alexander the Great
- Founded the Lyceum
- Died 322 BC
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The Corpus
- Aristotle wrote a number of philosophical works in many areas
- Some of his books are lost
- His works broadly in the area of logic are called the Organon (including Categories)
- Later works deal with metaphysics, ethics, politics, poetics, physics, astronomy, biology, psychology, and other fields
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Classification
- The Categories is primarily concerned with the way we classify things
- We classify things by virtue of what they have in common
- If only the name is in common, two things are homonymous (animal: man, painting of animal)
- If in addition to the name the account of the essence of two things is common, they are synonymous (animal: man, ox)
- If their names differ only in inflection, they are paromymous (grammar, grammarian)
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Things Said
- Some things are said with combination (man runs, man wins)
- Some things are said without combination (man, ox, runs, wins)
- Classification always involves combination
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Said of a Subject
- What is said of a subject is more general than that of which it is said.
- Socrates is animal
- Socrates is pale
- Man is animal
- White is color
- What is said of one subject can be said of other subjects (Plato is animal, Aristotle is pale, bird is animal, red is color)
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In a Subject
- What is in a subject:
- Belongs in it
- Is not a part of the subject (e.g., a hand)
- Cannot exist separately from what it is in
- Examples
- My knowledge of grammar is in my soul
- Knowledge is in my soul
- My white color is in my body
- Color is in my body
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Permutations
- Some things said of a subject are not in a subject (man is said of me but not in me)
- Some things in a subject are not said of a subject (my white color is in me but not said of me)
- Some things are both in a subject and said of a subject (knowledge is said of grammatical knowledge and in my soul)
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Species, Genus, Difference
- Individual things belong to species, which are said of them but not in them (Socrates is man)
- Species belong to genera, which are said of them but not in them (man is animal)
- An individual belonging to a species is also said to belong to the genus of the species (Socrates is animal)
- Species in a single genus are distinguished by differentiae (man is rational animal, bird is winged animal)
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Kinds of Beings
- Things said without combination signify a kind of being
- There are ten kinds
- Substance (man)
- Quantity (two feet long), quality (white), relative (larger), where (in the Lyceum), when (yesterday), position (sitting), having (has shoes on), acting on (burning), being affected (being burnt)
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Substance
- Some things are neither said of nor in a subject
- These are called primary substances
- Examples: Socrates, Punxutawney Phil
- All things are either said of or in primary substance, so they depend on its existence
- The species and genera of substances are called secondary substances
- Examples: man is the species of Socrates, animal is the genus of man
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Features of Substance
- Secondary substances are not thises, since they are said of many things
- Substances have no contraries, though neither do some other kinds (quantity)
- Substance does not admit of degrees (man is never more or less man)
- Only particular substances can receive contraries (a single color, being one and the same, is not pale and dark, but a man is a different times)
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