What does Aristotle mean by "substance" (ousia)? How does he distinguish between primary and secondary substances? Why are individual, concrete things (like "Socrates" or "this tree") considered primary substances, while species and genera ("human" or "animal") are secondary?

>>24497638 (OP)
Independent existence: They do not exist in anything else. If primary substances did not exist, nothing else could exist. A quality like "whiteness" cannot exist on its own; it must be the whiteness of something (a white house, a white dog).

>>24497638 (OP)
what existed before early humans gained sentience.
Just baseline nature like water, coral or trees. Things that we depend on for variety and satiety. Trees can build a house and water can hydrate use. Fire can cook food

>>24497675
us* not use

coral also provides home for fish that we can eat

>>24497638 (OP)
>How does he distinguish between primary and secondary substances? Why are individual, concrete things (like "Socrates" or "this tree") considered primary substances, while species and genera ("human" or "animal") are secondary?


read the categories again