Philosophy: Basic Questions; Dr. Edgar Boedeker;
Worksheet on Aristotle’s Categories, Sections 1-5, especially 4-5
Starting to read Aristotle is almost always a frustrating experience. The best advice is not to get
discouraged, not to expect to understand everything at first (or after a career of studying it!), to
bear with his style, and to use the worksheet questions as a guide for reading.
Fell free to skip sections 103 in the Categories, focusing on sections 4 and 5. The important
things to get out of sections 1-3 are the following, so make sure to read the following:
- Each sentence is a combination of a subject and a predicate in one of 4 ways: “All S is
P”, “Some S is P”, “No S is P”, and “Some S is not P”.
- A predicate is either said of the subject or in the subject.
- A predicate is said of the subject if and only if everything true of the predicate is also true
of the subject. For example, take the sentence “Socrates is human”. The predicate
“human” is said of Socrates because all humans are animals, rational, living things, etc. –
and “Socrates is an animal”, “Socrates is rational”, “Socrates is a living thing”, etc. are all
true.
- On the other hand, a predicate is in the subject if and only if there’s something true of the
predicate that’s not true of the subject. For example, take the sentence “Socrates is
white”. The predicate “white” is in Socrates because white is a color and a physical
property – but “Socrates is a color” and “Socrates is a physical property” are both false.
- A category is a kind, or way, or being.
- Aristotle believes that there are 10 categories.
- The category of substance is special. Something is a substance if and only if it cannot be
in a subject.
- That is, something is a substance if and only if either
a. it can be a predicate, but whenever it is a predicate it is said of the subject; that
is, everything true of the predicate is also true of the subject. Examples
include human, animal, rational, and living thing.
b. it cannot be a predicate of any sentence – but can only be a subject. Examples
include Socrates, my cat Frank, this house, etc.
- Aristotle calls (a.) secondary substances, and (b.) primary substances.
EXERCISES:
1. Give an example of a primary substance.
2. Give an example of a secondary substance that’s said of this primary substance.
3. What are the 9 categories (= kinds of being) besides substance?
4 (see section 4). For each of the 9 categories besides substance, explain why each can be in the
primary substance (thus implying that it’s different from substance).
(By the way, “account” at section 5, 2a20-34 just means “definition”.)
5 (see section 5, 2a35-b8). Of the 10 kinds of beings, which does Aristotle think is or are the
most basic? Why?