مقايسه آموزه "جوهر در دو كتاب مقولات و متافيزيك ارسطو

A Comparison between the Idea of "Essence" in Aristotleʹs Categories and Metaphysics

Aristotle has dealt with the idea of essence in his Categories and Metaphysics. It may seem incoherent what he says in the two books about the criteria of essence and its instances; they may even seem completely different. Apart from the possible change of mind that may have occurred to Aristotle in the meantime, one can explain such inconsistency to the difference of approach in his different works, Categories, as a logico-philosophical work, treats subjective aspects of the issue and the relation between concepts as well, This is why it classifies some universal concepts under "secondary essence". On the other hand, Metaphysics has a completely metaphysical approach, and therefore, there is no discussion of the secondary essence therein. Aristotle, in Metaphysics, introduces essence as the true instance of "existent", and hence the study of truth is restricted to the study of essence, and essence becomes the subject matter of philosophy. It is noteworthy that it was only by philosophical innovations of Farabi and Ibn-Slna that the philosophy of essence was replaced by the philosophy of existence.