Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics

Theodore Scaltsas. Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. Pp. xiii + 292. Cloth, $39.95.

In Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics Theodore Scaltsas offers an interpretation of Aristotle's metaphysics that is both traditional and novel. On the central puzzle of Book Z, Scaltsas follows Aquinas in taking substantial form to be particular in actuality (in existence) and universal in abstraction (in the mind). The novelty comes in the way that Scaltsas borrows ideas from current metaphysics to express the interpretation, and the way in which he engages with contemporary thinkers on Aristotle's behalf. The third element is Scaltsas's detailed description of the evolution of Aristotle's ideas on the unity of substance and essence from Plato's account of participation.

The central claim of the book is that the insoluble problems of interpretation, like the question of whether substantial form is particular or universal, can be best dispelled if we realize that Aristotle developed a theory of abstract objects in response to ontological difficulties. Form in abstraction is universal and hence can be the object of definition and knowledge; in existence form is particular, and is identical to the substance itself (168)..Indeed, Scaltsas claims that all components of substance-form, matter, attributes-only exist in abstraction from the substance. The unity of substance...