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Single Idea 11237

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 2. Types of Essence ]

Full Idea

Plato argues that only universals have essence.

Gist of Idea

Only universals have essence

Source

report of Plato (works [c.375 BCE]) by Vassilis Politis - Aristotle and the Metaphysics 1.4

Book Ref

Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.16

The 30 ideas from 'works'

23890 For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil]
3060 Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
23891 Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil]
563 If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato]
14502 Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki]
20906 Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle]
17948 Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas]
3039 When Diogenes said he could only see objects but not their forms, Plato said it was because he had eyes but no intellect [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
556 If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato]
557 A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato]
565 The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato]
9607 The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato]
13263 We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki]
13261 Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki]
13265 Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki]
593 Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle]
13260 Plato says wholes are either containers, or they're atomic, or they don't exist [Plato, by Koslicki]
11237 Only universals have essence [Plato, by Politis]
11238 Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis]
17085 A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben]
1651 Plato wanted to somehow control and purify the passions [Vlastos on Plato]
3324 Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato]
7503 Plato never refers to examining the conscience [Plato, by Foucault]
2173 As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato]
9274 Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray]
94 Pleasure is better with the addition of intelligence, so pleasure is not the good [Plato, by Aristotle]
17947 Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
6015 Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut]
2912 Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato]
1526 Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle]