The Categories
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The first category - substance - is the most important in Aristotle's ontology. Substances are, for Aristotle, the fundamental entities. The Categories is a text from Aristotle's Organon that enumerates all the possible kinds of things that can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition. They are "perhaps the single most heavily discussed of all Aristotelian notions". Aristotle agrees with Plato that knowledge is of what is true and that this truth must be justified in a way which shows that it must be true, it is necessarily true. ... Thus it is through the senses that we begin to gain knowledge of the form which makes the substance the particular substance it is.
Aristotle
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist whose works have profoundly influenced philosophical discourse and scientific investigation from the later Greek period through to modern times. A student of Plato, Aristotle’s writings cover such disparate topics as physics, zoology, logic, aesthetics, and politics, and as one of the earliest proponents of empiricism, Aristotle advanced the belief that people’s knowledge is based on their perceptions.
In addition to his own research and writings, Aristotle served as tutor to Alexander the Great, and established a library at the Lyceum. Although it is believed that only a small fraction of his original writings have survived, works such as The Art of Rhetoric, Nicomachean Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics have preserved Aristotle’s legacy and influence through the ages.
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