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Article: Primary 'Ousia': An Essay on Aristotle's Metaphysics Z and H.
- Article from:
- The Review of Metaphysics
- Article date:
- March 1, 1993
- Author:
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Loux sets the stage with a discussion of ousia in the Categories. There, he claims, Aristotle maintained that (1) "basic subjects" are ontologically fundamental, and (2) the essence of each such subject is its species (Aristotle's essentialism). Loux thinks that Aristotle was tacitly committed to the "intersection" of these two, which he terms the "unanalyzability principle": An ousia's falling under its species is a "primitive...fact about it...not susceptible of further ontological analysis" (p.4).
By the time he came to write Metaphysics 7 and 8, Aristotle had rejected this principle. He came to see that because the basic subjects of the Categories are ...