Editing Theory of categories (section)

==Early development==
The process of abstraction required to discover the number and names of the categories of being has been undertaken by many philosophers since [[Aristotle]] and involves the careful inspection of each concept to ensure that there is no higher category or categories under which that concept could be subsumed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} Categories by Aristotle |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/categories.1.1.html |access-date=2022-07-15 |website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref> The [[Scholasticism|scholars]] of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries developed Aristotle's ideas.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Gracia |first1=Jorge |title=Medieval Theories of the Categories |date=2016 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/medieval-categories/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Winter 2016 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=2022-07-15 |last2=Newton |first2=Lloyd}}</ref> For example, [[Gilbert de la Porrée|Gilbert of Poitiers]] divides Aristotle's ten categories into two sets, primary and secondary, according to whether they inhere in the subject or not:
*Primary categories: Substance, Relation, Quantity and Quality
*Secondary categories: Place, Time, Situation, Condition, Action, Passion<ref>Reese W.L. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion'' (Harvester Press, 1980)</ref>
Furthermore, following [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]]’s likening of the classificatory hierarchy to a [[Porphyrian tree|tree]], they concluded that the major classes could be subdivided to form subclasses, for example, [[Substance theory|Substance]] could be divided into [[Genus]] and Species, and [[Quality (philosophy)|Quality]] could be subdivided into [[Property (philosophy)|Property]] and Accident, depending on whether the property was necessary or contingent.<ref>''Ibid''. cf Evangelou C. ''Aristotle's Categories and Porphyry'' (E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1988)</ref> An alternative line of development was taken by [[Plotinus]] in the second century who by a process of abstraction reduced Aristotle's list of ten categories to five: Substance, Relation, Quantity, Motion and Quality.<ref>Plotinus ''Enneads'' (tr. Mackenna S. & Page B.S., The Medici Society, London, 1930) VI.3.3</ref> Plotinus further suggested that the latter three categories of his list, namely Quantity, Motion and Quality correspond to three different kinds of relation and that these three categories could therefore be subsumed under the category of Relation.<ref>''Ibid''. VI.3.21</ref> This was to lead to the supposition that there were only two categories at the top of the hierarchical tree, namely Substance and Relation. Many supposed that relations only exist in the mind. Substance and Relation, then, are closely commutative with Matter and Mind--this is expressed most clearly in the dualism of [[René Descartes]].<ref>Descartes R. ''The Philosophical Works of Descartes'' (tr. Haldane E. & Ross G., Dover, New York, 1911) Vol.1</ref>

===Vaisheshika===
{{excerpt|Padārtha|only=paragraphs}}

===Stoic===
{{excerpt|Stoicism|Categories}}

===Aristotle===
{{Main|Categories (Aristotle)}}

One of [[Aristotle]]’s early interests lay in the classification of the natural world, how for example the genus "animal" could be first divided into "two-footed animal" and then into "wingless, two-footed animal".<ref>Aristotle ''Metaphysics'' 1075a</ref> He realised that the distinctions were being made according to the qualities the animal possesses, the quantity of its parts and the kind of motion that it exhibits. To fully complete the proposition "this animal is&nbsp;..." Aristotle stated in his work on the [[Categories (Aristotle)|Categories]] that there were ten kinds of predicate where&nbsp;...

"...&nbsp;each signifies either substance or quantity or quality or relation or where or when or being-in-a-position or having or acting or being acted upon".<ref>''Op.cit.2''</ref>

He realised that predicates could be simple or complex. The simple kinds consist of a subject and a predicate linked together by the "categorical" or inherent type of relation. For Aristotle the more complex kinds were limited to propositions where the predicate is compounded of two of the above categories for example "this is a horse running". More complex kinds of proposition were only discovered after Aristotle by the Stoic, [[Chrysippus]],<ref>Long A. & Sedley D. ''The Hellenistic Philosophers'' (Cambridge University Press, 1987) p.206</ref> who developed the "hypothetical" and "disjunctive" types of [[syllogism]] and these were terms which were to be developed through the [[Scholasticism|Middle Ages]]<ref>Peter of Spain (''alias'' John XXI) ''Summulae Logicales''</ref> and were to reappear in [[Category (Kant)|Kant's system of categories]].

''Category'' came into use with [[Aristotle]]'s essay ''[[Categories (Aristotle)|Categories]]'', in which he discussed univocal and [[Equivocation|equivocal]] terms, predication, and ten categories:<ref>''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2412/2412-h/2412-h.htm Categories]'', translated by [[Ella Mary Edghill|E. M. Edghill]]. For the Greek terms, see ''[http://meta.montclair.edu/ancient/greek/aristotle_greek/ The Complete Works of Aristotle in Greek] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401112540/http://meta.montclair.edu/ancient/greek/aristotle_greek/ |date=2010-04-01 }}'' (requires DjVu), Book 1 (''Organon''), ''Categories'' Section 4 (DjVu file's page 6).{{cite web |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2412/2412-h/2412-h.htm |title=The Project Gutenberg E-text of the Categories, by Aristotle |access-date=2010-02-21 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102084057/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2412/2412-h/2412-h.htm |archive-date=2013-11-02 }}</ref>
*'''[[Substance theory|Substance]]''', essence (''[[ousia]]'') – examples of primary substance: this man, this horse; secondary substance (species, genera): man, horse
*'''[[Quantity]]''' (''poson'', how much), discrete or continuous – examples: two cubits long, number, space, (length of) time.
*'''[[Quality (philosophy)|Quality]]''' (''poion'', of what kind or description) – examples: white, black, grammatical, hot, sweet, curved, straight.
*'''[[Property (philosophy)|Relation]]''' (''pros ti'', toward something) – examples: double, half, large, master, knowledge.
*'''[[Space|Place]]''' (''pou'', where) – examples: in a marketplace, in the Lyceum
*'''[[Time]]''' (''pote'', when) – examples: yesterday, last year
*'''[[Human position|Position]]''', posture, attitude (''keisthai'', to lie) – examples: sitting, lying, standing
*'''State''', [[Condition (philosophy)|condition]] (''echein'', to have or be) – examples: shod, armed
*'''[[Action (philosophy)|Action]]''' (''poiein'', to make or do) – examples: to lance, to heat, to cool (something)
*'''[[Affection (philosophy)|Affection]]''', passion (''paschein'', to suffer or undergo) – examples: to be lanced, to be heated, to be cooled

===Plotinus===
[[Plotinus]] in writing his ''[[Enneads]]'' around AD 250 recorded that "Philosophy at a very early age investigated the number and character of the existents&nbsp;... some found ten, others less&nbsp;... to some the genera were the first principles, to others only a generic classification of existents."<ref>''Op.cit.9'' VI.1.1</ref> He realised that some categories were reducible to others saying "Why are not Beauty, Goodness and the virtues, Knowledge and Intelligence included among the primary genera?"<ref>''Ibid.'' VI.2.17</ref> He concluded that such [[Transcendentals|transcendental categories]] and even the [[Categories (Aristotle)|categories of Aristotle]] were in some way posterior to the three [[Eleatics|Eleatic]] categories first recorded in Plato's dialogue ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]'' and which comprised the following three coupled terms: 
*Unity/Plurality
*Motion/Stability
*Identity/Difference<ref>Plato ''Parmenides'' (tr. Jowett B., ''The Dialogues of Plato'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1875) p.162</ref>

[[Plotinus]] called these "the hearth of reality"<ref>''Op.cit.9'' Op.cit.1.4</ref> deriving from them not only the three categories of Quantity, Motion and Quality but also what came to be known as "the three moments of the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic world process]]":
*First, there existed the "One", and his view that "the origin of things is a contemplation"
*The Second "is certainly an activity&nbsp;... a secondary phase&nbsp;... life streaming from life&nbsp;... energy running through the universe"
*The Third is some kind of Intelligence concerning which he wrote "Activity is prior to Intellection&nbsp;... and self knowledge"<ref>''Ibid.'' III.8.5</ref>

Plotinus likened the three to the centre, the radii and the circumference of a circle, and clearly thought that the principles underlying the categories were the first principles of creation. "From a single root all being multiplies." Similar ideas were to be introduced into Early Christian thought by, for example, [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] who summed it up saying "Therefore, Unity, having from all eternity arrived by motion at duality, came to rest in [[Trinity]]."<ref>Rawlinson A.E. (ed.) ''Essays on the Trinity and the Incarnation'' (Longmans, London, 1928) pp.241-244</ref>