The Ten Categories of Being

Aristotle 384 BC 322 BC

Some Biographical Points

Student of Plato for 22 years at Platos
Academy
Tutor of Alexander the Great
Systematized the science of logic. Wrote on
the Philosophy of Nature, on the nature of
poetry, politics, ethics, metaphysics, on the
soul, biology, zoology, and more.

Some Biographical Points

Aristotles father, Nicomachus, was the personal
physician to King Amyntas of Macedon.
Aristotle, thus, had a greater appreciation for
matter, the physical, etc., than his teacher Plato.
Because Plato argued that only forms or essences
are true being, and that forms exist in a separate
intelligible World of Forms, and that this world is
not fully real, he did not bother to study nature as
much as he studied the nature of the state, law,
politics, etc.

We looked at the problem of universals and we saw that in

dealing with this, Plato reasoned that there is a world of
forms separate from this sensible world, and in this world
exists all the forms or essences. They exist in their pure
intelligibility, as eternal and unchanging.
And so for Plato, the primary mode of being is form or
essences.

This is not so for Aristotle. According to Aristotle,

forms are in things, not in some separate world of ideas.
And so the primary mode of being for Aristotle is
thing or entity, or what he calls substance.

The Ten Categories of Being

For Aristotle, there are ten categories or modes of being,
that is, ten ways to exist. The first way is primary,
namely, substance. Things exist as substances (I.e., gold,
iron, water, flower, apple tree, man, etc.)

The other nine ways are secondary. These modes of

being exist in substance, and these are called
accidents.

1. Substance (principal mode of being) ie Sammy the snake.

Accidents (secondary modes of being).

2. Quantity: parts outside of parts

continuous

discrete

1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

3. Quality: quality is a distinct mode of being than quantity.

Asking how much is not the same as asking about a things
quality.

affective qualities (colour, texture, etc)

Quality

abilities and debilities (ability to grow, or walk)

habit and disposition (flammable, or mechanically disposed)
form and figure (round, square, etc)

4. The Relative (Relation): substances exist in relation to other

substances. Beside, in front of, mother of, employer of, etc.
5. Where (place): Substances occupy place. Where is a different
mode of being than when, or quantity. When we ask where
something is, we are not asking about its relation, or size, or quality.
6. When (time): Material substances exist in time. Time is not a
substance. If material substances did not exist, time would not exist.
Time is the measure of movement according to a before and an after.
Hence, time depends upon motion.

7. Action: Substances can act a certain way. Birds fly, dogs bark,
trees grow, etc.

8. Passion (to undergo): Substances can be acted upon. I.e., getting

mugged, rained on, etc.
9. Posture: Substances can take on a certain posture, I.e., sitting
down, standing up, lying down.

10. State (habit): clothed.

Accidents exist in a substance. They inhere in a substance. The word

accident is from the Latin ac-cidere: to inhere in.
The substance is that in which the accidents inhere. Substance is the
substratum of the accidental modes of being. They actuate the
substance in an accidental way, that is, in a way that does not change
the substance itself.
The first accident quantifies a substance. A human being, for
instance, was at one time smaller than your hand. He/she increased in
quantity and is now six foot five inches, three hundred pounds. But
even though his quantity changed, he/she (the substance) remained
the same substance.
Quality qualifies a substance in an accidental way. You may change
color after sitting in the sun, yet you are the same substance.

Note: If quantity = substance, then it follows that a change in

quantity would amount to a change in substance. Bubba the
Glutton would become a different substance the instant he gained
any weight (after his body digested the dozen donuts he ate). But
Bubba remains Bubba whether he loses or gains, whether there is
more of him or less of him. It's still him.
Therefore: Quantity is distinct from substance (not separate).
Quantity is a distinct mode of being (even though all substances
have quantity).

Consider: The Medieval thinkers were able to use this doctrine

of substance in order to show that what Catholics believe
regarding the Eucharist is not irrational. They argued that it is
indeed possible, if God so chooses to work the miracle, for the
substance of Christs body to exist under the appearance of
bread and wine.
Transubstantiation refers to the changing of the substance of
bread into the substance of Christs body; the changing of the
substance of wine into the substance of Christs blood.
The substance of bread changes, while the accidents of the
bread (quantity, color, taste, etc) remain the same. The
substance of wine changes while the accidents of wine
(quantity, color, taste, etc) remain the same.