6.1 Substance

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Identify what constitutes a substance.
  • Articulate the difference between monism and pluralism.
  • Contrast Aristotle’s and Plato’s views of form and substance.
  • Compare theories of substance in Greek and Indian philosophy.

The Latin term substantia, translated as substance, is often used to refer to the basic reality of a thing. The notion that reason could lay bare the secrets of the cosmos if properly applied was widespread throughout the ancient world. One of the early questions that philosophers in ancient Greece and India approached was that of fundamentality, or simply, What is the foundation of reality? What is the independent base for that which we consider to be real?

The content of this course has been taken from the free Philosophy textbook by Openstax