substance (ousia)
E427121
Substance (ousia) is Aristotle’s fundamental metaphysical category denoting what truly exists in its own right and underlies all properties and changes.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| substance (ousia) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4270292 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: substance (ousia) Context triple: [Metaphysics (Aristotle), keyConcept, substance (ousia)]
-
A.
Substance and Function
"Substance and Function" is a 1910 philosophical work by Ernst Cassirer that analyzes the shift from substance-based to function-based concepts in modern science and knowledge.
-
B.
Doctrine of Being
The Doctrine of Being is the first major section of Hegel’s *Science of Logic*, where he analyzes the most basic categories of thought such as pure being, nothing, and becoming.
-
C.
thing-in-itself (noumenon)
The thing-in-itself (noumenon) is Kant’s term for reality as it exists independently of human perception and experience, in contrast to the world of appearances (phenomena).
-
D.
Universals
Universals is a philosophical work by F. P. Ramsey that examines the nature and existence of general properties or qualities shared by multiple particular things.
-
E.
essence–energies distinction
The essence–energies distinction is an Eastern Orthodox theological teaching, especially emphasized in hesychasm, that differentiates between God's unknowable essence and His knowable, participable energies through which humans experience divine grace.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: substance (ousia) Target entity description: Substance (ousia) is Aristotle’s fundamental metaphysical category denoting what truly exists in its own right and underlies all properties and changes.
-
A.
Substance and Function
"Substance and Function" is a 1910 philosophical work by Ernst Cassirer that analyzes the shift from substance-based to function-based concepts in modern science and knowledge.
-
B.
Doctrine of Being
The Doctrine of Being is the first major section of Hegel’s *Science of Logic*, where he analyzes the most basic categories of thought such as pure being, nothing, and becoming.
-
C.
thing-in-itself (noumenon)
The thing-in-itself (noumenon) is Kant’s term for reality as it exists independently of human perception and experience, in contrast to the world of appearances (phenomena).
-
D.
Universals
Universals is a philosophical work by F. P. Ramsey that examines the nature and existence of general properties or qualities shared by multiple particular things.
-
E.
essence–energies distinction
The essence–energies distinction is an Eastern Orthodox theological teaching, especially emphasized in hesychasm, that differentiates between God's unknowable essence and His knowable, participable energies through which humans experience divine grace.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Aristotelian concept
ⓘ
metaphysical concept ⓘ ontological category ⓘ |
| analyzedBy | hylomorphism ⓘ |
| centralInPhilosophyOf | Aristotle NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| characterizedBy |
being subject of change
ⓘ
being subject of predication ⓘ capacity to exist independently ⓘ |
| contrastedWith |
accident
ⓘ
action ⓘ passion ⓘ place ⓘ position ⓘ quality ⓘ quantity ⓘ relation ⓘ state ⓘ time ⓘ |
| denotes |
what exists in its own right
ⓘ
what is neither said of a subject nor in a subject ⓘ |
| discussedInWork |
Categories
ⓘ
Metaphysics NERFINISHED ⓘ Physics ⓘ |
| fundamentalCategoryInSystemOf | Aristotelian metaphysics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasAspect |
form
ⓘ
matter ⓘ |
| hasInterpretation |
as concrete individual entity
ⓘ
as essence of a thing ⓘ as underlying subject of attributes ⓘ |
| hasLanguageOfOrigin | Ancient Greek NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasOriginalName | οὐσία ⓘ |
| hasType |
primary substance
ⓘ
secondary substance ⓘ |
| influenced |
Christian theological metaphysics
ⓘ
Islamic philosophy NERFINISHED ⓘ early modern metaphysics ⓘ medieval scholastic metaphysics ⓘ |
| is | primary category in Aristotle’s ten categories ⓘ |
| playsRoleIn |
Aristotle’s ontology of categories
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Aristotle’s theory of change ⓘ Aristotle’s theory of predication ⓘ |
| primarySubstanceExample |
this individual horse
ⓘ
this individual man ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
being
ⓘ
essence ⓘ individuality ⓘ |
| secondarySubstanceExample |
the genus animal
ⓘ
the species man ⓘ |
| underlies |
accidents
ⓘ
changes ⓘ properties ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: substance (ousia) Description of subject: Substance (ousia) is Aristotle’s fundamental metaphysical category denoting what truly exists in its own right and underlies all properties and changes.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Metaphysics (Aristotle)