Definition of Substance (Philosophy)

The idea of substance has had multiple interpretations throughout the history of the philosophy. It comes from the Latin word substantia, which literally means "what is underneath." Therefore, it is about that under something else. This implies that all reality has something unalterable and a series of accidental elements that can vary in some sense. Because of this, the notion of substance is sometimes equivalent to the idea of ​​essence.

In any case, the idea of ​​substance has been part of the metaphysics What discipline of philosophy.

According to Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes and Spinoza

For Aristotle each individual is formed by an original first substance. These first substances can be a tree, a man or a dog. None of them have an opposite (there is the opposite of white, but not the opposite of a tree). All the first substances refer to something unique to each being and that is not found in anything else.

However, what can be said of a first substance makes up a second substance (for example, in an animal the first substance would be the

gender and the second substance would be species). On synthesis, it could be affirmed that in Aristotle the idea of ​​substance is a category that allows to explain what things are.

Thomas Aquinas is a medieval philosopher who tried to reconcile Aristotle's approach with Christian doctrine

For this, he maintains the same vision as Aristotle on the notion of substance, but understands that there are substances without matter or form, which are angels and God. Therefore, there are material and other spiritual substances, and this distinction is known as the question of separate substances.

For Descartes there are three types of substances: the res cogitans or the thing that thinks (the mind or the soul human), the res spacious or the thing that occupies a space (or the material world) and, finally, the divine res or God.

Spinoza review the vision of Descartes and affirms that there is only one substance, which is God. For Spinoza the idea of ​​God is equivalent, in turn, to the idea of ​​Nature. In this sense, God is a divine and infinite substance and is the cause of himself and of all reality.

Philosopher David Hume criticized earlier philosophers' idea of ​​substance

Hume wonders about the validity of this idea and maintains that it is not valid because it does not correspond to any concrete impression. In other words, an idea is true only if it has a direct relationship to an objective impression.

In this way, for Hume the notion of substance comes exclusively from the imagination and not from reality.

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