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).
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).