Substance PDF

UNIT-I C) Substance THE NOTION AND NATURE OF SUBSTANCE: The notion of substance is acquired from our sense experience. Substance can be seen as a thing or rather the foundation of a thing. As indicated in the mild sense, the substances in a given phil...

UNIT-I C) Substance THE NOTION AND NATURE OF SUBSTANCE: The notion of substance is acquired from our sense experience. Substance can be seen as a thing or rather the foundation of a thing. As indicated in the mild sense, the substances in a given philosophical framework are those things which are the foundational or major elements of reality. The word ‘Substance’ literally means ‘subject or substratum’ that which supports. It is derived from the Latin word ‘substantia’ which means ‘standing under’. Substance thus literally means then “that which stands beneath”. Secondly the role of substance is related to its nature that is something subsistent. This means that it does not exist in something else, but in itself, as the relatively permanent principle of a being. We can hence define substance as ‘the basic inner principle of relative permanence of a being that becomes.’ From this definition we may conclude that finite beings are composed of a relatively permanent principle which remains primarily the same throughout secondary changes, and secondary principles which may come and go without producing a change in the primary mode of being. The relatively permanent principle is called “substance”, and secondary principles are called “accidents”. Substance is the substratum or shelter in which qualities or activities inhere. Sweetness, hardness, whiteness etc are qualities which exist in the substance, sugar. Blowing is an action of the substance, air. Thus we say sugar is sweet, hard and white and wind blows. Actions and qualities remain present in substances in a particular relation known as the relation of inherence. So, among the objects that we know there are substance, quality, action and relation. The idea of substance shifts with different savants, reliant upon the school of thought to which they have a place. While the realists would build up a materialistic idea of substance, the idealist would build up an otherworldly or abstract idea of substance. For the intensive going empiricist, since substance is not something that can be seen or touched, one would expect that it contain an abstract phenomenal, something not destroyable. The history of western philosophy began by asking the question, what the essential substance of thing in the universe? That is, what is the essential foundation of things in which everything in the world is made from? Thales was the first Greek philosopher who offered a reasonable clarification of the universe. Thales contended that this essential substance is water. For Anaximander held that the primordial substance, the essential stuff of which everything is made must be a nonpartisan component not the same as every one of the components we know: endless and uncertain. Anaximenes contended that the essential substance of the universe is air. While for Heraclitus, the essential way of substance (all the truth) is change, for Parmenides, it is permanence. Democritus took those determinate particular objects they called atoms to be the substance of the universe. Plato dismissed all realist endeavors to clarify what substance of things is made of. As indicated by Plato, the overseeing standards were Forms. Aristotle has used the word, ‘Substance’ in different senses. All modern western philosophers have taken their cue from Aristotle whenever they use the word ‘Substance’. Aristotle used the word ‘Substance’ in the following four sense:- (1) ‘Substance’ means a concrete individual object. Taken in this sense, an individual man, a particular dog, the table before me, a particular tree, the piece of paper on which I write are all substances. This is the most definite and primary sense of the word ‘substance’. (2) ‘Substance’ means genus and species and it also means the essence of a class of things. Primary substances.i.e., concrete individual objects are included in different species and a species is included in a genus. For example, Ram, Shyam, Jadu and other individual human beings are included in the class of ‘man’ which is a species in relation to ‘animal’. Again, all individual dogs like Poodle, belong to the species,’ dogs’ and the species ‘dog’ is included in the genus ‘animal’. So, ‘man’, ’dog’, ’animal’ and all other classes of objects are substances in the secondary sense. (3) ‘Substance’ means that which has an independent existence of its own and which exists as the substratum of qualities and relations. Substance is not parasitic like qualities and relations. The qualities and relations always depend on something for their existence. This something on which the qualities depend and in which they exist is called a substance. But the substance does not depend on qualities and relations for its existence. Substance is over and above its qualities. Its existence is independent of qualities and relations. (4) ‘Substance’ is the centre or source of all changes and actions and it remains stable through all these changes and actions. Substance is that which can be the substratum of many conflicting characters in spite of being numerically one and the dame. This is the most distinctive characteristic of substance. For example, the same mango is green at one time and ripe at another. Again, a man remains the same though he passes through different stages of childhood, youth and old age. That which changes or that which keeps its identity unchanged amidst all changes which it undergoes is known as substance. Similarly, Substance acts, but remains the same through its actions.  (5) Substance is the logical subject of a proposition. The logical subject of a proposition is that about which we assert something, i.e., affirm or deny something. But this logical subject is not asserted of anything. That means, a logical subject is always a subject, it can never be a predicate. By this logical subject Aristotle has understood the substratum of qualities and actions. Common sense view on Substance Common sense views this physical world as consisting of various kinds of things, like trees, rivers, mountains, chairs, benches etc. These things are thought to be independent. They are supposed to possess qualities and are related to one another in different ways. These things are called substances. As regards the nature of substance common sense holds the following views: - (1) A substance is regarded as something permanent and changeless. It remains permanent in the midst of all its changes and it remains the same through its changing states and qualities. In spite of the successive changes of state which a substance undergoes in time, it does not lose its identity. E.g. the individuality of a man remains the same though the person undergoes different stages of childhood, youth and old age. Substance is that which gives unity and continuity to the various changes it undergoes and maintains its essentially identical character by holding its changes together. (2) A substance is regarded as a centre of activity, energy or force. IT is not a passive substratum in which the qualities or attributes of a substance inhere. As a permanent entity it is a centre of effort and activity. For the maintenance of its identity and permanence it has to resist the eternal forces acting upon it and try to overcome them. By continuous efforts and activity, it can assert and preserve itself and maintain its character as a permanent entity. So, a substance acts and is acted upon by others. (3) A substance has manifestations. It manifests itself through its qualities or attributes. A substance is meaningless without its qualities. If a substance like a flower is not manifested in its qualities like shape, size, color, smell etc it will be a meaningless abstraction. It is to be admitted that a substance is not a mere aggregate or sum total of its attributes; otherwise, the reality of a substance is denied. But the reality of substance is expressed through its attributes. And it is through qualities that a substance is known. Each makes the other intelligible. So an object is a concrete unity of substance and its manifestations, i.e., qualities. Empiricist view of Substance The chief advocates of the empiricist view of substance are Locke, Berkeley and Hume. (1) Locke’s view on Substance: - According to Locke the idea of substance is a complex idea. As an empiricist, Locke holds that all our knowledge is derived from ideas. What is an idea? Locke says. “Whatever the mind perceives in itself or is the immediate object of perception, thought or understanding that I call idea.” Ideas are of two kinds :- (a) Simple ideas: - Ideas that represent qualities which actually exist in things. E.g., solidity, extension, number, colour, taste, smell etc. (b) Complex ideas: - When the mind is possessed of simple ideas, mind can create complex ideas out of these simple ideas by three processes of combination, relation and abstraction. The idea of substance according to Locke is a complex idea. We cannot think of simple ideas to be self-supported, we conceive of an unknown substratum as their basis and to this substrate we give the name ‘substance’. So a substance is the combination of certain simple ideas plus the idea of some unknown support acting as their basis. According to Locke, substances are of two kinds, cogitative and incognitative. Locke used the above two terms instead of material and mental substance, because there is every possibility that God has endowed a material object with the capacity of thinking. Like material substances, spiritual substances too have real existence. The mental states like thinking, feeling, willing, doubting, believing etc., cannot exist in us without a substratum. They have their basis in some substratum, which can be termed as soul substance. According to Locke, though soul cannot be perceived by senses, it can be known directly through intuition. (2) Berkeley’s theory on Substance:- Berkeley, an empiricist philosopher, denies the existence of a material substance, but admits the existence of spiritual substance. According to him, esse-est-percipi ( To be is to be perceived), the existence of a thing consists in its being perceived. As a material substance cannot be perceived by the mind it cannot be real. Locke’s unknown and unknowable substratum underlying and supporting the qualities revealed in sensations is a meaningless abstraction, for such unknown and unknowable substratum cannot be perceived by the mind.  (3) Hume’s view on Substance:- Hume denies substance of any kind, material or mental. He holds that the idea of substance can never be derived from experience. According to Locke, the content of the mind is an idea, but according to Hume it is not an idea, but a perception. Hume divides perceptions into impressions and ideas. Impressions are the immediate data of experience. By an impression Hume means,’ any sensation, passion or emotion as it makes its first appearance in our minds’. By impressions Hume refers to actual external and internal sensations. An idea is a faint copy of an impression. Every idea is the image and copy of an impression. The difference between an impression of a tree, for instance and its idea consists in the ‘greater force, vividness of the former’. According to Hume impressions and ideas are the only contents of the mind. Rationalist View on Substance:- (1) Descartes’ view on Substance From the rationalist viewpoint Descartes defines substance as an ‘existent thing which requires nothing but itself in order to exist’. So he defines substance by the concept of independence. According to him God is the only substance because He is the only one that does not depend on anything else to exist. However Descartes regards mind and matter as relative substances though they depend upon the Absolute substance for their existence. Descartes classifies created substances under two heads:-  Corporeal- which is matter or body.  Spiritual- which is mind. Mind and matter are independent of each other, both are dependent on God, but God is not dependent on them. Mind and matter are opposed to each other. They can only be known through their attributes. The attribute of mind is thought and the attribute of matter is extension. Mind is never found without thought, so there is no unconscious mind. And as matter is never found without extension, there is no unextended matter. (2) Spinoza’s view on Substance Spinoza virtually accepts the definition given by Descartes on substance. Spinoza defines substances thus:” By substance, I mean that which is (exists) in itself and is conceived through itself: in other words that of which a conception can be formed independently of any other conception”. So according to his definition substance is infinite, one, eternal unchangeable, absolutely free and nothing exists out of it. So Spinoza holds that God is the only substance and mind and matter are just attributes of God. (3) Leibnitz’s view on Substance Leibnitz agrees with Descartes and Spinoza in thinking that substance does not depend for its existence upon anything else. But Leibnitz thinks that it is not the independent existence, but the independent activity which constitutes the essence of substance. i.e., substance which can act independently.