TOPIC INFO (CUET PG)
TOPIC INFO – CUET PG (Philosophy)
SUB-TOPIC INFO – Philosophy (Section I: Metaphysics)
CONTENT TYPE – Short Notes
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1. Substance
1.1. Introduction
1.2. The Three Rationalist Predecessors
2. Descartes’ View
2.1. Kant’s View on Substance
2.2. The Principle of Permanence of Substance
2.3. Permanence of Substance as a Necessary Postulation
2.4. Permanence of Substance as Necessary Condition for Empirical Knowledge
2.5. Conclusion
3. Qualities
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Background
3.3. Conceptions of Quality as Metaphysical and Ontological
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Substance and Qualities
(Metaphysics)
CUET PG – Philosophy (Notes)
Substance
Introduction
Kant’s main views on substance are presented in Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786).
The principle of permanence of substance is a crucial principle in physics, underlying the law of conservation of mass.
Two key points about Kant’s view on substance:
(1) The permanence of a substance is postulated.
(2) Empirical judgments are not possible without the permanence of substance.The question “What is substance?” relates to both science and philosophy (metaphysics), but the approaches differ between these fields.
The philosophical treatment of substance has a significant history beginning with René Descartes.
To understand Kant’s position, it is helpful to briefly revisit the views of his three rationalist predecessors on substance: Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.
Kant’s argument builds on and contrasts with these earlier views to support his two main points about the postulation of substance permanence and its necessity for empirical knowledge.
The Three Rationalist Predecessors
Greek philosophy sought a unifying matter or world substance from which all individual things originate and into which they transform.
Early substances were identified with specific elements like water, air, and fire.
Philosophers such as Thales, Parmenides, Democritus, and Pythagoras equated reality with substance, often using the terms interchangeably.
As a result, for a long time, the concept of substance remained indistinguishable from reality.
Plato regarded ideas as substances, the permanent essence of things, but these ideas have no living relation with things.
For Plato, the soul is a spiritual substance, which is eternal and real.
Aristotle related substance to form and matter; all tangible things consist of matter, but matter alone is not reality; it is only potentiality and exists only with form.
Aristotle replaced Plato’s “ideas” with form, which he considered the substance or essence.
There was persistent confusion between the concepts of substance and matter that lasted until the Post-Socratic period.
The three main rationalist predecessors of Kant are:
(1) René Descartes (1596-1650)
(2) Benedict or Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
(3) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)Their respective views on substance are to be examined next.