Aristotle’s "Categories," a summary Automatic translate

"Categories" is a fundamental philosophical treatise written by Aristotle in the 4th century BC as the first part of the "Organon." This work laid the foundations of logic and ontology, proposing a system for classifying all things and ways of speaking about them, which determined the vector of development of European philosophical thought for millennia to come. ### Eponymous, co-nominal, and denominated

The text begins with linguistic and logical definitions necessary for further analysis. Aristotle distinguishes three types of relationships between the name and the essence of an object. Homonyms are things that share a common name but have different essences of being. For example, the word "living creature" (dzoon) can refer to either a real person or a painted image, yet the nature of their being is fundamentally different.

The philosopher calls objects that share both the same name and the same definition of their essence synonymous. A human and an ox are called "living beings" in the same sense, since the definition of animality applies to both. Paronymous objects are objects that take their name from another name with a different ending, such as "grammarian" from "grammar" or "courageous" from "courage."

The structure of statements and the classification of beings

The philosopher distinguishes between what is said in connection (complex statements like "a man runs") and without connection (separate terms: "man," "runs"). Truth or falsity is inherent only to connected statements.

Next, a classification of beings is introduced based on two criteria: "being said about the subject" and "being in the subject." "Being in the subject" refers to that which is not part of the object but cannot exist separately from it.

1. It is said, but not found: universal entities (for example, “man” as a species is spoken of as an individual person).
2. It is found, but not reflected: individual properties (a specific ability to read in the soul, a specific whiteness in the body).
3. It is reflected and is found: general properties (knowledge is in the soul and is reflected in the ability to read).
4. It is not expressed and is not found: individual entities (this individual person, this individual horse).

Generic concepts apply to species, while specific concepts apply to individual objects. The properties of higher genera are transferred to subordinate species and individuals, but the specific distinctions of different, mutually independent genera (like "living being" and "knowledge") differ.

Ten categories

Aristotle lists ten categories to which everything that is said without connection is reduced:

1. Entity (human, horse).
2. Quantity (two cubits long).
3. Quality (white, competent).
4. Ratio (double, greater).
5. Place (on the square).
6. Time (yesterday).
7. Position (sitting).
8. Possession (shoes).
9. Action (cuts).
10. Endurance (it is cut).

These words in themselves do not assert anything true or false; the assertion arises only when they are combined.

Essence (Ousia)

Essence is considered the basis for everything else. Primary essences, the philosopher calls them, are individual objects (this man, this ox) that are not predicated of or contained in their subject. Secondary essences are the species and genera to which primary essences belong. A species (man) is closer to the nature of a thing than a genus (a living being), and therefore a species is a greater essence than a genus.

Everything that is not the primary essence is either predicated of it or is found in it. If there were no primary essences, nothing else could exist. The distinguishing feature of an essence is that it is not found in its subject (although species differences also possess this property).

Entities have no opposites (there is nothing opposite to "human") and do not allow degrees of comparison (a human cannot be "more" or "less" human). The main characteristic of an entity is the ability, while remaining the same number, to accept opposites through change. The same human being becomes sometimes pale, sometimes dark, sometimes bad, sometimes good, undergoing change itself.

Quantity

Quantity is divided into discrete and continuous. Discrete quantities include number and speech (the parts do not share a common boundary), while continuous quantities include line, surface, body, time, and place (the parts touch at a boundary). Quantities also differ in the relative position of their parts: line and body have positions, while time and number have only an order of sequence.

There is no opposite to quantity. Aristotle attributes the terms "great" and "small" not to quantity, but to relation, since they imply comparison. Quantity does not admit of degrees (three cannot be "more than three"). The proper characteristic of quantity is the ability to call an object equal or unequal.

Correlated (Relation)

A relation is something that exists in connection with another. This includes concepts such as "greater," "dual," "state," "perception," and "knowledge." Relationships often (but not always) have opposites (virtue - vice) and admit degrees (more similar).

An important property of a relation is reciprocity (a slave is the master’s slave, and the master is the slave’s master). If there is no reciprocity, then the relation is incorrectly defined. Aristotle asks whether an entity can be related (for example, a hand is someone else’s hand), and concludes that parts of entities are not relations in themselves, since knowledge of a particular entity (this hand) does not necessarily entail knowledge of the one to whom it belongs.

Quality

Quality is what gives things their "such-and-such" quality. There are four types of quality:

1. Stable properties and states (knowledge, virtue). Properties are long-lasting and difficult to change.
2. Innate abilities (healthy, able to run, boxer).
3. Experienced qualities and affects (sweetness, warmth, colors). They act on the senses or arise as a result of external influences (blushing from shame).
4. Outlines and shapes (straight, triangular).

Qualities have opposites (black and white, justice and injustice) and allow degrees of comparison (whiter), with the exception of shapes (a triangle cannot be more triangular than another). The distinguishing feature of a quality is that it determines whether objects are similar or dissimilar.

Action, suffering and other categories

The categories of action and suffering allow for oppositions (heating — cooling) and degrees (heating more intensely). Position, time, place, and possession are mentioned briefly in the text, with reference to their obviousness or previous analysis.

Types of opposition

Aristotle analyzes in detail four ways in which one can be opposed to another:

1. As related: double and half.
2. As opposites: good and evil, white and black. Opposites may have no middle ground (illness/health, even/odd) or have one (white/black - middle ground is gray).
3. Like privation and possession: sight and blindness. Privation is the absence of a property where it naturally should be. The transition from possession to privation is possible, but the reverse is not.
4. Like affirmation and negation: "he is sitting" - "he is not sitting." Only in this case, one statement is always true and the other is false.

Opposites and order

Good is always opposed to evil, but sometimes evil is opposed to good, and sometimes to another evil (excess and deficiency are both evil, but opposed to each other). Opposites must belong to the same genus, or to opposite genuses, or be genuses themselves.

The concept of “previous” (first) has five meanings:

1. By time (older).
2. By the irreversibility of existence (the existence of one does not entail the existence of two, but two entail one).
3. In order (in sciences or speeches).
4. By dignity (the best and most honored).
5. By the causality of truth (the existence of man is the cause of the truth of the statement “man exists”, although they are mutually reversible in being).

“Together” (simultaneous) is understood as a coincidence in time, or as things that exist mutually reversibly, but are not the cause of each other (double and half), or as species of the same genus that divide it.

Movement and possession

Aristotle classifies six types of motion:

• Emergence;
• Destruction;
• Increase;
• Decrease;
• Transformation (qualitative change);
• Displacement (movement in space).

The philosopher proves that transformation is not reducible to other types of motion. Every motion is opposed either by rest or by a countermovement (creation by annihilation, upward motion by downward motion).

The final chapter of the treatise examines the concept of "possession." This word has a wide range of meanings: possession of a quality (knowledge), a quantity (height), clothing, a body part, the contents of a vessel, or property. Aristotle also mentions possessing a wife or husband, explaining that this signifies cohabitation. "One could perhaps point out some other meanings of possession; but I believe the usual meanings have been listed."