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Substance

 
     
  The word ‘substance’ (from Latin substantia, ‘essence’, derived from substare, ‘to stand underneath’) has been used in various different ways by different philosophers. In one sense, a substance is a thing which has properties and qualities, but is not itself a property or quality of something else. In another, a substance is something which is capable of existing independently of anything else.

We can distinguish between (1) properties or qualities and (2) the things or substances which have properties or qualities. The issue is not so simple, however, since properties and qualities can themselves have properties and qualities. So, for example, the quality redness can have the further property of being bright. So if we are to distinguish between (1) properties or qualities and (2) the things or substances which have them, we will have to say that there are (1) properties or qualities and (2) the things or substances which have properties and qualities, but are not themselves properties and qualities of something else.

In another sense, substances are that which can exist apart from anything else (except perhaps God). So, for example, Descartes held that mind and matter are distinct substances. For minds can exist without bodies—minds can exist disembodied. And matter can exist without minds. Neither depends upon the other for its existence, each depending only upon God for its existence. AJ

Further reading D. Wiggins, Sameness and Substance.
 
 

 

 

 
 
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