Abstract
Different ontologies adopt different notions of existence as basic. Aristotle’s paradigm of existence is given by the equivalence:
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Correlation (2) has been first pointed out by Professor Irving M. Copi in his memorable paper ‘Objects, Properties, and Relations in the Tractatus’, Mind 67 (1958) 145–165. In fact Copi’s remark that “Wittgenstein’s objects are substantial in the later sense of substrata, and correspond more closely to Aristotle’s prime matter than to his primary substances” (p. 164) was the starting-point in developing the parallelism presented here.
Cf. G. E. M. Anscombe, ‘An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus’, London 1959, p. 165.
Cf. Aquinas Summa contra Gentiles, II, 54: “In substantiis autem compositis ex materia et forma est duplex compositio actus et potentiae: prima quidem ipsius substantiae quae componitur ex materia et forma; secunda vero ex ipsa substantia iam composita et esse.”
It needs stressing that there are great difficulties concerning the proper interpretation of 2.0201, especially with regard to the question why is ‘statement’ (Aussage) being used there in the singular, and ‘propositions’ (Sätze) in the plural. Moreover, in the present context it should be stipulated that S is to be an Elementary complex, that is, that ‘F(a, b, c)’ is to be an elementary proposition.
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© 1969 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Wolniewicz, B. (1969). A Parallelism Between Wittgensteinian and Aristotelian Ontologies. In: Cohen, R.S., Wartofsky, M.W. (eds) Proceedings of the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science 1966/1968. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3378-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3378-7_6
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