Substance theory

Substance theory holds that enduring entities are fundamental, while their properties and changes depend on those entities. It contrasts with views that treat events, processes, or bundles of properties as basic.

Substance: An entity conceived as existing in itself rather than as a property or relation of another entity. Substance theory makes entities of this kind metaphysically basic.
Bundle theory: The view that an object is nothing over and above a bundle of properties. It reverses the dependence relation: objects depend on properties, not properties on substances.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works shaped logic, natural science, and metaphysics. His account of primary substances became a foundational version of the view.
Substance dualism: The view that mind and body are distinct kinds of substance. It applies substance theory to the relation between mental and physical reality.
Substratum theory: The view that a substance includes a bare underlying bearer distinct from its properties. It sharpens the question of what remains when all a substance’s properties are abstracted away.
Property: A feature or quality that can be attributed to an entity, such as redness or mass. The theory treats properties as belonging to substances rather than existing independently.
Process philosophy: A philosophical approach that treats processes and becoming as more fundamental than static entities. It challenges the priority substance theory gives to enduring things.
Categories (Aristotle): Aristotle’s work classifying beings and distinguishing primary substances from what is predicated of them. It gives the classic distinction between individual substances and dependent attributes.
Hylomorphism: The view that physical things are compounds of matter and form. It explains concrete substances through the unity of material and formal principles.
Bare particular: A particular conceived as a propertyless bearer that individuates a bundle of properties. It is a proposed account of the subject beneath properties in some substance theories.

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