Title

Substances, Accidents, and Kinds: Some Remarks on Aristotle's Theory of Predication

Authors

Frank A. Lewis, University of ArizonaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-29-1984

Abstract

A major feature of Aristotle's strategy against Plato in the Categories is to collapse the dichotomy that Plato's theory of (metaphysical) predication attempts to make between forms and sensibles. In Aristotle's theory, Socrates IS some of his predicables, but HAS others. He IS what is essential to him, and HAS the rest. These different relations between Socrates and his various predicables form a large part of the motivation for the further ontological distinctions that Aristotle draws in the Categories.

Notes

Frank Lewis presented “Substances, Accidents, and Kinds: Some Remarks on Aristotle’s Theory of Predication” to the meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the American Philological Association in Toronto in 1984. it was largely incorporated into his book Substance and Predication in Aristotle, Cambridge 1991.

Frank Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He writes that he continues to work on Aristotle, using the UC Berkeley library. For more information about the author, see https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/phil/faculty_display.cfm?Person_ID=1003456

Recommended Citation

Lewis, Frank A., "Substances, Accidents, and Kinds: Some Remarks on Aristotle's Theory of Predication" (1984). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 108.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/108