Categories (Stoic)
Encyclopedia
The term Stoic Categories refers to Stoic
ideas regarding Categories: the most fundamental classes of being for all things. The Stoics believed there were four categories (substance, quality, disposition, relative disposition) which were the ultimate divisions. Since we do not now possess even a single complete work by Zeno of Citium
, Cleanthes
or Chrysippus
what we do know must be pieced together from a number of sources: doxographies
and the works of other philosophers who discuss the Stoics for their own purposes.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/
and Simplicius
, with additional evidence from Plutarch of Chaeronea
and Sextus Empiricus
. According to both Plotinus and Simplicius there were four Stoic categories, to wit:
A simple example of the Stoic categories in use is provided by Jacques Brunschwig:
, like Aristotelianism
is derived from Platonic
and Socratic traditions. The Stoics held that all being
(ὄντα) -- though not all things (τινά) -- are corporeal
. They accepted the distinction between concrete bodies and abstract
ones, but rejected Aristotle's
teaching that purely incorporeal
being exists. Thus, they accepted Anaxagoras'
idea (as did Aristotle) that if an object is hot, it is because some part of a universal heat body had entered the object. But, unlike Aristotle, they extended the idea to cover all accidents
. Thus if an object is red, it would be because some part of a universal red body had entered the object.
In addition, the Stoics differed from Aristotle in their sharp distinction between concrete and abstract terms. Technically speaking all four Stoic categories are of concrete bodies. For Aristotle white, whiteness, heat, and hot were qualities. For the Stoics, however, quality refers to white, but not whiteness; hot, but not heat. Furthermore, they believed that there are concrete bodies with no corresponding abstraction, something that makes no sense in Aristotelian terms.
It was apparent that the mere distinction between concrete substance and concrete quality was not a sufficient basis for logic
. Socrates
in the Hippias Major
had pointed out problems in Anaxagoras' approach, explaining all attributes through their presence in a body in the way one body may be contained in another. In that dialog, Hippias tried to explain beauty
to Socrates. Socrates finds fault with his explanations, that beauty is a beautiful maiden, that beauty is gold, that beauty is health, wealth and a long life.
Aristotle solved the problem in proposing that accidental attributes are non-substantial beings that inhere
in substances. He defines this presence saying "By being 'present in a subject' I do not mean present as parts are present in a whole, but being incapable of existence apart from the said subject." (The Categories
1a 24-26)
Such incorporeal presence caused problems to the Stoics in saying that the οὐσία
of a thing is its matter
. It is easy to understand the problem. If there is an insubstantial being, in Athens somehow present in Socrates, causing him to be substantially present in Athens we seem to be faced with an infinite regression, for there would seem to be an insubstantial Socrates in the insubstantial Athens in Socrates, in Athens, etc. Ultimately, who is to say who is the real Socrates and what is the real Athens? Similar arguments can be made of Aristotle's other categories. Was there an insubstantial running in Archimedes
causing him to run naked through the streets of Syracuse
, shouting out his immortal "Eureka
"? Was there an insubstantial fist in Athena causing her to strike Aphrodite as the Iliad
recounts?
It was the effort to solve the problems raised by the Platonists and Peripatetics that led the Stoics to develop their categories, somehow disposed and somehow disposed in relation to something. The fact that Stoicism, rather than either Platonism or Aristotelianism became the prominent philosophy of the ancient world is due in part to the approach they took to the problem.
According to Stephen Menn
the first two categories, substance and quality, were recognized by Zeno
. The fourth category somehow disposed in relation to something seems to have been developed by the time of Aristo. The third category, somehow disposed is first seen in Chrysippus
.
The need for relative terms, seen in the fourth category somehow disposed in relation to something is more obvious than the need for the third category somehow disposed and so it seems to have arisen first.
Aristotle had used relative terms in a somewhat general way. "Those things are called relative, which, being either said to be of something else or related to something else, are explained by reference to that other thing." (The Categories 6a 37-38) Thus he says that knowledge and the thing known are relatives. One can certainly consider knowledge as something properly existing in its subject. Aristotle himself recognized a much different kind of relationship. "In respect of relation there is no proper change; for, without changing, a thing will be now greater and now less or equal, if that with which it is compared has changed in quantity." (Metaphysics 1088a 33-35) In the first case, a relative term can be said to be something in its subject. In the second case, it can not. Thus, the need for somehow disposed in relation to something to explain how one thing can be relative to another without the presence of anything corporeal in a subject.
According to Stephen Menn, the third category, somehow disposed probably was recognized first in relation to the virtues. According to Socrates, virtue was a sort of knowledge. The wise man will act virtuously, since he will see it as the right thing to do. But the ignorant man can not avoid vice. The Stoic position held that a sage will possess all the virtues in their fullness. Aristo had argued that there is really only one virtue differentiated as somehow disposed in relation to something. This seemed to be too much like the Megarian
position. Chrysippus thus came to see the virtues as distinct bodies, inseparable from each other somehow disposed in themselves and not in relation to something. Thus the need for the third category.
however defended Aristotle's scheme. He justified this by arguing that they be interpreted strictly as expressions, rather than as metaphysical realities. The approach can be justified, at least in part, by Aristotle's own words in The Categories. Boëthius' acceptance of Porphyry's interpretation led to their being accepted by Scholastic
philosophy.
The Stoic scheme did not fare as well. Plotinus wrote...
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
ideas regarding Categories: the most fundamental classes of being for all things. The Stoics believed there were four categories (substance, quality, disposition, relative disposition) which were the ultimate divisions. Since we do not now possess even a single complete work by Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...
, Cleanthes
Cleanthes
Cleanthes , of Assos, was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the successor to Zeno as the second head of the Stoic school in Athens. Originally a boxer, he came to Athens where he took up philosophy, listening to Zeno's lectures. He supported himself by working as water-carrier at night. After the...
or Chrysippus
Chrysippus
Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of Cleanthes in the Stoic school. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the school...
what we do know must be pieced together from a number of sources: doxographies
Doxography
Doxography is a term used especially for the works of classical historians, describing the points of view of past philosophers and scientists. The term was coined by the German classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels.- Classic Greek philosophy :...
and the works of other philosophers who discuss the Stoics for their own purposes.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/
Overview
Our information comes from PlotinusPlotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
and Simplicius
Simplicius of Cilicia
Simplicius of Cilicia, was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into...
, with additional evidence from Plutarch of Chaeronea
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
and Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
. According to both Plotinus and Simplicius there were four Stoic categories, to wit:
- substanceSubstance theorySubstance theory, or substance attribute theory, is an ontological theory about objecthood, positing that a substance is distinct from its properties. A thing-in-itself is a property-bearer that must be distinguished from the properties it bears....
(ὑποκείμενον)- The primary matter, formless substance, (ousia) which makes up things.
- qualityQuality (philosophy)A quality is an attribute or a property. Attributes are ascribable, by a subject, whereas properties are possessible. In contemporary philosophy, the idea of qualities and especially how to distinguish certain kinds of qualities from one another remains controversial.-Background:Aristotle analyzed...
(ποιόν)- The way in which matter is organized to form an individual object. In Stoic physics, a physical ingredient (pneuma: air or breath) which informs the matter.
- somehow disposed (πως ἔχον)
- Particular characteristics, not present within the object, such as size, shape, action, and posture.
- somehow disposed in relation to something (πρός τί πως ἔχον)
- Characteristics which are related to other phenomena, such as the position of an object within time and space relative to other objects.
A simple example of the Stoic categories in use is provided by Jacques Brunschwig:
I am a certain lump of matter, and thereby a substance, an existent something (and thus far that is all); I am a man, and this individual man that I am, and thereby qualified by a common quality and a peculiar one; I am sitting or standing, disposed in a certain way; I am the father of my children, the fellow citizen of my fellow citizens, disposed in a certain way in relation to something else.
Background
StoicismStoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...
, like Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
is derived from Platonic
Platonism
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
and Socratic traditions. The Stoics held that all being
Being
Being , is an English word used for conceptualizing subjective and objective aspects of reality, including those fundamental to the self —related to and somewhat interchangeable with terms like "existence" and "living".In its objective usage —as in "a being," or "[a] human being" —it...
(ὄντα) -- though not all things (τινά) -- are corporeal
Matter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
. They accepted the distinction between concrete bodies and abstract
Abstract object
An abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a type of thing . In philosophy, an important distinction is whether an object is considered abstract or concrete. Abstract objects are sometimes called abstracta An abstract object is an...
ones, but rejected Aristotle's
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
teaching that purely incorporeal
Incorporeal
Incorporeal or uncarnate means without the nature of a body or substance . The idea of incorporeality refers to the notion that there is an incorporeal realm of existence, or "place", that is distinct from the corporeal or material universe. Incorporeal beings or objects are not made out of matter...
being exists. Thus, they accepted Anaxagoras'
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to bring philosophy from Ionia to Athens. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the sun, which he described as a fiery mass larger than...
idea (as did Aristotle) that if an object is hot, it is because some part of a universal heat body had entered the object. But, unlike Aristotle, they extended the idea to cover all accidents
Accident (philosophy)
Accident, as used in philosophy, is an attribute which may or may not belong to a subject, without affecting its essence. The word "accident" has been employed throughout the history of philosophy with several distinct meanings....
. Thus if an object is red, it would be because some part of a universal red body had entered the object.
In addition, the Stoics differed from Aristotle in their sharp distinction between concrete and abstract terms. Technically speaking all four Stoic categories are of concrete bodies. For Aristotle white, whiteness, heat, and hot were qualities. For the Stoics, however, quality refers to white, but not whiteness; hot, but not heat. Furthermore, they believed that there are concrete bodies with no corresponding abstraction, something that makes no sense in Aristotelian terms.
It was apparent that the mere distinction between concrete substance and concrete quality was not a sufficient basis for logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
. Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
in the Hippias Major
Hippias Major
Hippias Major is one of the dialogues of Plato. It belongs to the Early Dialogues, written while the author was still young. Its precise date is uncertain, although a date of circa 390 BCE has been suggested...
had pointed out problems in Anaxagoras' approach, explaining all attributes through their presence in a body in the way one body may be contained in another. In that dialog, Hippias tried to explain beauty
Beauty
Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...
to Socrates. Socrates finds fault with his explanations, that beauty is a beautiful maiden, that beauty is gold, that beauty is health, wealth and a long life.
Aristotle solved the problem in proposing that accidental attributes are non-substantial beings that inhere
Inherence
Inherence refers to Empedocles' idea that the qualities of matter come from the relative proportions of each of the four elements entering into a thing. The idea was further developed by Plato and Aristotle....
in substances. He defines this presence saying "By being 'present in a subject' I do not mean present as parts are present in a whole, but being incapable of existence apart from the said subject." (The Categories
Categories (Aristotle)
The Categories is a text from Aristotle's Organon that enumerates all the possible kinds of thing that can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition...
1a 24-26)
Such incorporeal presence caused problems to the Stoics in saying that the οὐσία
Ousia
Ousia is the Ancient Greek noun formed on the feminine present participle of ; it is analogous to the English participle being, and the modern philosophy adjectival ontic...
of a thing is its matter
Matter (philosophy)
Matter is the substrate from which physical existence is derived, remaining more or less constant amid changes. anything that occupies space and has mass and weight...
. It is easy to understand the problem. If there is an insubstantial being, in Athens somehow present in Socrates, causing him to be substantially present in Athens we seem to be faced with an infinite regression, for there would seem to be an insubstantial Socrates in the insubstantial Athens in Socrates, in Athens, etc. Ultimately, who is to say who is the real Socrates and what is the real Athens? Similar arguments can be made of Aristotle's other categories. Was there an insubstantial running in Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
causing him to run naked through the streets of Syracuse
Syracuse, Italy
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...
, shouting out his immortal "Eureka
Eureka (word)
"Eureka" is an interjection used to celebrate a discovery, a transliteration of a word attributed to Archimedes.-Etymology:The word comes from ancient Greek εὕρηκα heúrēka "I have found ", which is the 1st person singular perfect indicative active of the verb heuriskō "I find"...
"? Was there an insubstantial fist in Athena causing her to strike Aphrodite as the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
recounts?
Once Hera spoke, Athena dashed off in pursuit,
delighted in her heart. Charging Aphrodite,
she struck her in the chest with her powerful fist.http://www.mala.bc.ca/~Johnstoi/homer/iliad21.htm
It was the effort to solve the problems raised by the Platonists and Peripatetics that led the Stoics to develop their categories, somehow disposed and somehow disposed in relation to something. The fact that Stoicism, rather than either Platonism or Aristotelianism became the prominent philosophy of the ancient world is due in part to the approach they took to the problem.
According to Stephen Menn
Stephen Menn
Dr. Stephen Menn, PhD. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University. He teaches ancient philosophy , medieval philosophy and the history and philosophy of mathematics...
the first two categories, substance and quality, were recognized by Zeno
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...
. The fourth category somehow disposed in relation to something seems to have been developed by the time of Aristo. The third category, somehow disposed is first seen in Chrysippus
Chrysippus
Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of Cleanthes in the Stoic school. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the school...
.
The need for relative terms, seen in the fourth category somehow disposed in relation to something is more obvious than the need for the third category somehow disposed and so it seems to have arisen first.
Aristotle had used relative terms in a somewhat general way. "Those things are called relative, which, being either said to be of something else or related to something else, are explained by reference to that other thing." (The Categories 6a 37-38) Thus he says that knowledge and the thing known are relatives. One can certainly consider knowledge as something properly existing in its subject. Aristotle himself recognized a much different kind of relationship. "In respect of relation there is no proper change; for, without changing, a thing will be now greater and now less or equal, if that with which it is compared has changed in quantity." (Metaphysics 1088a 33-35) In the first case, a relative term can be said to be something in its subject. In the second case, it can not. Thus, the need for somehow disposed in relation to something to explain how one thing can be relative to another without the presence of anything corporeal in a subject.
According to Stephen Menn, the third category, somehow disposed probably was recognized first in relation to the virtues. According to Socrates, virtue was a sort of knowledge. The wise man will act virtuously, since he will see it as the right thing to do. But the ignorant man can not avoid vice. The Stoic position held that a sage will possess all the virtues in their fullness. Aristo had argued that there is really only one virtue differentiated as somehow disposed in relation to something. This seemed to be too much like the Megarian
Megarian school of philosophy
The Megarian school of philosophy , which flourished in the 4th century BC, was founded by Euclid of Megara, one of the pupils of Socrates. Its ethical teachings were derived from Socrates, recognizing a single good, which was apparently combined with the Eleatic doctrine of Unity...
position. Chrysippus thus came to see the virtues as distinct bodies, inseparable from each other somehow disposed in themselves and not in relation to something. Thus the need for the third category.
Neoplatonic Critique
Plotinus criticized both Aristotle's Categories and those of the Stoics. His student PorphyryPorphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...
however defended Aristotle's scheme. He justified this by arguing that they be interpreted strictly as expressions, rather than as metaphysical realities. The approach can be justified, at least in part, by Aristotle's own words in The Categories. Boëthius' acceptance of Porphyry's interpretation led to their being accepted by Scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
philosophy.
The Stoic scheme did not fare as well. Plotinus wrote...
Besides, if they make life and soul no more than this "pneuma,"
what is the import of that repeated qualification of theirs "in a
certain state," their refuge when they are compelled to recognize some
acting principle apart from body? If not every pneuma is a soul, but
thousands of them soulless, and only the pneuma in this "certain
state" is soul, what follows? Either this "certain state," this
shaping or configuration of things, is a real being or it is nothing.
If it is nothing, only the pneuma exists, the "certain state"
being no more than a word; this leads imperatively to the assertion
that Matter alone exists, Soul and God mere words, the lowest alone
is.
If on the contrary this "configuration" is really existent-
something distinct from the underlie or Matter, something residing
in Matter but itself immaterial as not constructed out of Matter, then
it must be a Reason-Principle, incorporeal, a separate Nature.http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/plotinus
Further reading
- Stephen Menn, "The Stoic Theory of Categories," in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume XVII: 1999, (Oxford, Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-825019-3, pp.215-47
External links
- Grammar and Philosophy: The Stoic Theory of Categories with an extensive bibliography