Aristotle, The Categories: Primary vs Secondary Substance (pt 2)

In this short video series, we cover an excerpt from The Categories, by Aristotle. The central goal of this series is to spell out the traditional view of what an individual is: a substance. Core concepts include independent existence vs dependent existence, or basically the difference between a substance and the attributes it has.

In this video we consider what is meant by 'dependence' a little further. This brings us to Aristotle's view about what species and genera (plural genus) are. They are substances, but they exist in virtue of individual things. This is the view already spelled out in the Posterior Analytics, but here now we can make this point in his technical terminology. Socrates is a substance, and a man is a substance. When I say "There is Socrates" and "There is a man" I don't have to say there are two independent things there. The claim "There is a man" could be true because I am referring to Socrates in a certain way (his being a man). Aristotle's point is that that kind of predication is calling an individual by what it is (the kind to which it belongs), rather than what it has (the attribute which it possesses).

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