Importance of Substance (Philosophy)

In the field of philosophy, the term 'substance' is complex and often carries time understand what it really means. According to the passage of time and at different times, the substance has been interpreted in different ways and for different purposes.

Observing in Classical Antiquity, by Plato and Aristotle

Although the most important philosopher of antiquity, Plato, made reference in some way to the notion of substance, the one who finished giving it shape and theorizing about it was his disciple Aristotle. This Greek philosopher proposed, as a continuation line with respect to Plato's proposals, that the substance was the element that represented the essence of each being and each thing. In Greek the substance was called ousia.

It is worth clarifying here that Plato, prior to Aristotle, established the separation between the real world and the the images of the world of ideas, those that represented the true substance of each thing. The Truth and the Good were for him the main substances of the life, those that could only be accessed by someone educated and prepared.

For Aristotle, the world should be divided into different stages or levels that made one pass substances minor or first to second substances, those that are higher and that only some could really understand or understand. grab. The higher substance for Aristotle was represented by the notion of philosophy, a structure similar to the one that Plato raised when he spoke of wisdom and the philosopher as the only representatives of knowledge TRUE.

towards the Middle Ages

As the Middle Ages progressed and a highly religious world was established in Europe (and for Western philosophy), in which God was the center of the entire universe, the philosophers and thinkers of the time sought to establish a relationship between God and the notion of substance. This was a job which produced different results.

What Santo Tomás de Aquino, San Agustín or Guillermo de Occam proposed was to put God at the center of that structure delimited by Aristotle, at the upper level. For them, knowledge was then represented by God. The difference between the three authors would be in how to reach that superior substance: Occam was the only one of the three who raised the possibility that God exists only when thought, while Thomas and Augustine assumed the permanent existence of that substance superior.

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