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Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy

Abstract

The body of thought contained in Aristotle’s Categories posed a host of questions for its medieval interpreters. This entry considers medieval approaches to five such questions:

  1. 1.

    What is the subject matter of the Categories, words or things?

  2. 2.

    Is Aristotle’s list of ten categories complete and irreducible, and can its completeness be demonstrated?

  3. 3.

    What is the nature of the accidents in the last six categories (which are not covered extensively in the Categories)?

  4. 4.

    Are individual accidents individuated by the substances in which they inhere, can they be transferred from one substance to another, and what are the implications for the Christian doctrine of the Eucharist?

  5. 5.

    What is the ontological nature of relations and relatives, and what are the implications for the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity?

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Bibliography

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Paul Thom

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  1. Paul Thom
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Correspondence to Paul Thom .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. London, Ontario, Canada

    Henrik Lagerlund

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Thom, P. (2018). Categories. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1151-5_116-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1151-5_116-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1151-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1151-5

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