1

Continuation…

Modes of Being: Substance and Accidents

Remember, however, that metaphysics treats being (esse) in its essence – what is the essence
of being, which is the same as asking what is it to be?

Thus, the question of metaphysics therefore is, what is the manner of being of the “act of
being”.
There is something wrong with this expression because the act of existing is not of itself a being
(ens), hence, it is, in itself not a subject of the act of being. It is an unspecified act. We
understand this to mean, however, that although the act of being is common to all, there are
two basic modes of the act of being, which can be identified by the mind. But what is this
distinction and what is its ground?

The distinction is based on our experience of permanence and change. What is permanent is
that which has the act of being in itself – substance.

St. Thomas had said that being means “that-which-has-existence-in-act”. This is substance,
which subsists (Commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, Book I, distinction 8, quest. 1, art.
1).

“The act of being (esse) is that by which substance is given the name of being (ens)” (Summa
Contra Gentiles, Book II, chapter 54).

“This act is the actuality of every form or nature” (Summa Theologiae, I, 3, 4).

*The notion of being (ens) applies primarily to substance.

The first division we can make of “esse” therefore is that there is an act of being which gives a
being existence in itself, and an act of being which allows a being to exist in another. That
which exists in itself is substance. That which exists in another is accident. These two are the
“manners of being” of the act of being (esse).

That which we call “ens” is properly called substance. It is properly a composite of “esse” and
“essence”, since its esse is to exist in itself.

Accident is primarily essence, whose “esse” it participates, or shares in the “esse” of others
(the esse of ens).

------------------ essence (e.g., horseness)

Substance ------------------- (ens)
------------------ esse (act of being of a horse)
White horse --------------------
------------------- accident

essence (whiteness)
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Substance

Substance is that which exists in itself or by itself. Since being is analogical, the term “being”
applies partly in the same sense and partly in a difference sense. “Being” applies strictly to
substance, and applies broadly to accidents.

Description of Substance:

1. Unity of being in multiplicity – We see many men, but each man is one being.
Although each man is one (unity), it does not preclude there being many men.

2. Permanence in changes – That which remains under the changes.

3. The subsistence – the core or nucleus of being, that on which or in which all other
things exist.
4. subject or holder of the accidents = the “sub-stare”

5. it is what subsists = what exists of and by itself = on which everything else is based.
In a being, what subsists is the substance, all other aspects are based on the substance.

6. it has being in itself, and not in another

7. it is what fully fulfills the notion of ens (what has esse)

Excursus…1

*Substance is an abstract change. It is not to be confused with material causality. The meaning
of substance becomes clear when we speak about accidents.

1
Example: Transubstantiation

Two proposals to change the concept:

a.) transfinalization – change of purpose
b. trans-signification – change of meaning
All these do not coincide with what the Church believes. Even if purpose and meaning is ascribed to
Christ, the implication is still subjective. But transubstantiation is an objectively real event.

Substance, according to some theologians, is an outdated term to use concerning the Eucharist because
it has evolved and no longer understood in the way it was understood before. Today, it is understood as
“stuff” or as material cause (that by which a thing is made up of). Thus, transubstantiation would be
confusing to modern ears, because one would think the stuff that the host is turned into is “flesh” when in
fact using either the naked eye or the microscope, the host remains to be “bread”.

But even if we use substance today in terms of a “stuff”, still we continue to use it in the sense of the
“being of a thing” in our everyday speech, e.g., “the substance of my talk”, “his position has changed
substantially” – these two instances use the word substance in the sense of “what the thing is”, or “ “what
makes the thing remain to be what it is, to make it identifiable as such”
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Accidents: Secondary manners of being

Accidents are secondary manners of being because as soon as we perceive them, we realize
that something else holds them (subject of inhesion).
They are:
1. determinative of ens which appear multiplied in a subject, e.g., in a subject such as a
dog, we find many secondary determinations such as weight, size, color, etc.
2. changeable determinations of a permanent subject
3. derived or secondary determinations of a primary and principal subject.

Hence, accidents are called beings of being (entia entis). It belongs to them to be in another
and not in themselves. While accidents are beings of being, substance is simply being.

Nine Ways of Predicating Accidents:

Predication is the act of affirming or denying one concept of another.

e.g., The horse is white. The horse = subject (substance)
white = accident (predicated of a horse)

A. Intrinsic Predication:
1. quantity – predication through matter
2. quality – through form
3. relation in regard to something else
B. Extrinsic Predication: external to substance
1. action – acting of causing efficiently 9 accidents
2. passivity – correlative action
3. time – in relation to succession of movement
4. posture – the disposition or arrangement of parts
5. habit/possession – covering which one puts on
6. place – position in relation to other bodies

There are therefore categories of being: substance and nine accidents. Since all then are ways
of predicating being, they are therefore called the ten predicaments.
1. Christopher is a man. (substance)
2. Christopher is tall. (quantity)
3. Christopher is clever. (quality)
4. Christopher is Bien’s brother. (relation)
5. Christopher is drinking. (action)
6. Christopher is loved. (passivity)
7. Christopher came yesterday. (time)
8. Christopher is sitting down. (posture)
9. Christopher is wearing black slippers. (habit/possession)
10. Christopher is behind Jayson. (place)
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All these are ways of speaking about a subject.

Three-fold relationship between substance and accident:

1. Substance is the subject of the accidents. Subject is the holder or bearer of the
accidents.
2. Substance is to accident what potency is to act. Accidents perfect the substance.
Substance = potency; accident = act
3. Substance is to accident what cause is to effect.
Substance = cause
Accident = effect

• Accidents do not conceal substance but reveal it.

• Substance is not sensible but is a purely intelligible concept.
• Accidents reveal the substance to our intellect.

The Esse of the Accidents

What is the act of being of accidents?

Esse (act of being) belongs strictly speaking to the substance.

The esse of accidents consists in “in-esse” (to be in).

*Accidents are beings not because “they are in” themselves, but because, through them,
something is. They are further determination of substance.

e.g., through the accident of wisdom, Christopher is wise.

Wisdom does not have an existence of its own. It has essence, but no act of being. It inheres in
the act of being of substance. It is always the substance that is in act and is in act.
----------------------------
*This clarifies the position of Plato. Plato posited the existence of justice, wisdom, etc.
in an ideal world, when these do not have substantial existence, but simply accrue to substance.
*In transubstantiation, the accidents of bread and wine remain without a subject, since
they do not inhere in the substance of Christ. God preserves them in being without a subject
but they are there to cover a mystery. When we break a consecrated host, we are not breaking
the body of Christ, but an accident of bread (quantity), which is held in being by the
omnipotence God.
*In the sacramental system, the principle “the sacrament effects what it signifies”
applies to all sacraments. Bread signifies nourishment, thus, the sacrament of Eucharist
nourishes the soul. Although the sacrament substantially on the accidents that allow the
material element of the Eucharist to signify. Thus, as long as it signifies nourishment and
breadness, it is still the Body of Christ, for although they may be too small to nourish, they still
signify bread. Only the accident of quantity has changed.
*The Body of Christ is in the substance; not in the accidents.
*When the accidents cease to be, then it ceases to be a sacramental sign, thus it no
longer inheres in the Body of Christ.
*A morsel of bread is still bread, although it diminished in quantity.
*The accidents are supposed to reveal the substance, but in the case of the Eucharist,
they cover it.
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The Accident of Relation

Relation refers to substance to something else. It is an ordination or reference to another.

Two types of relation:

1) real = between realities
2) logical = concepts in mind (e.g., predicate and subject; genus and species)

The ultimate essence of relation:

1) esse in = common to all accidents
2) esse ad = the essential element of relation

Among nine accidents, esse in, only relation has esse ad.

There are, however, relations which have no esse in, but only esse ad. This is what is called
“subsistent relations”, the relations within the Trinity.

*What is the difference between substance and accident, essential and accidental?

Substance and accident refer to the real order – the manner of being of the act of being.

Essential and accidental refer to the conceptual order – whether something is necessary to the
concept or not.

e.g., intelligence is essential to the concept man although to be intelligent is an accident in a

man (quality)

Creatureliness (man is created by God) is essential to the concept man although it is a

relation in him (therefore accident).

That man is intellectual.

Man = substance
Intellectual = accident according to the real order because not all men are
intellectuals but essential according to the conceptual order (because all men are
rational)

That man is white.

Man = substance
White = accident according to the real order
But accidental according to the logical order

*something can be accident and yet essential to the substance.

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Potency and Act

Potency and act are concepts taken from the concept of change. They imply truth of the
principle of non-contradiction. Marxism denies the principle of non-contradiction because for
Marxism, there is no such thing as being but only becoming or process.

Potency or potentiality is the capacity to be something other than what is already is. Potency is
something real, but not actual. Act is that which is already. The passage from potency to act is
what we call motion.

Motion is the passage from potency to act.2 Motion is the act of being in potency insofar as it
is still in potency. It is an act because it is a reality, and every reality is an act. It is, however,
not a perfect act, because if it were, it would no longer be motion.

Motion is more perfect than potency but less perfect than act.

A B
Pontency ----------→ motion --------→ act

Two ways of understanding Motion:

1) Change from one subject to another.
Substantial change - a substance becoming another substance, a new substance
is generated as another is corrupted.
2) change from a subject in a certain stage to the same subject in another stage.
Change in accident:
- Accident of place = local motion
- Accident of quantity = increase or decrease
- Accident of quality = alteration

Act is twofold:
1) as form (to be in act)
2) act as operation (to do something)
Potency is also twofold:
1) active potency (operation = capacity to do)
2) passive potency (form = capacity to receive a form)

Act as form is correlated with passive potency.

Act as action = form is the principle of action (operation)

2
Motion is not a being; it is act of being in potency.
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Epistemological implication of Act and Potency

Knowledge is the possession of the form of something in an immaterial sense. Knowledge is

an increase in being, insofar as the one who knows increases his knowledge of things, i.e., he
possesses the forms of things in his mind. To know is to acquire forms immaterially. When
material things acquire a new form, they lose their previous form. In knowledge, the acquisition
of a form does not require that the knower lose his own form. The being of the form in the
knower is not physical but immaterial. This is “intentional being.”

Two levels of Potency and Act in Knowledge:

1. the passage from not knowing to knowing
2. the passage from possession of knowledge (habit) to application of such knowledge

Substance as Composite of Potency and Act

------------ essence ----------- potency

Ens
------------ esse --------------- act

All finite beings are perfectible, but essence limits our capacity to become another being.
Perfectibility depends on essence. We can always perfect our knowledge insofar as we are
rational animals, but we cannot transform ourselves into something other than rational animals.
If we regress into mere animality, we become less perfect, since we are denying our rationality.
Consequently, there is no self-fulfillment.

Potency (essence) is the limiting principle, although as potency, it is also the capacitating
principle.3

3
In God there is no potency. There is only pure act.
-----essence (to be)
God (ens)
------esse (to be)
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Essence – Nature, Concept, Definition, Form

---- essence (potency of being)

The Metaphysical Structure of Being = ens
---- esse (act of being)

Esse = “to be”

Essence = manner of being
= what a thing is, whereby a thing is what it is

Nature = the essence of a thing considered as the principle of operations proper to that thing.
Essence/nature determines the operation of something, e.g., It is the nature of man to be social.
Essence is the metaphysical determination of substance.

Accidents, strictly speaking, have no essence because they are determinations of the
determination of substance, but we speak of them as having essence in the sense that we can
have concepts of them, although never apart from the substance which they determine.

e.g., whiteness = is always associated with white substance

Concept = is a logical term for essence, which is a metaphysical concept. Concept is a mental
expression of an essence (any manner of being, including accidents).

Definition is an explicated concept.

Difference between essence and definition:

Essence is simple, but when the mind explicates it, it is a composition of genus and
specific difference.

Why? Due to the limitations of language and of the mind, which always compares similarities,
the mind has to go through the process of analysis and synthesis.

*We must not confuse order to concepts with the order of things.

To say that the order of concepts is the same as the order of things, that is, that they are identical
is to fall into rationalism (e.g., Spinoza).
On the other hand, to say that there cannot be correlation between concepts and reality is to fall
into skepticism (e.g., Kant).

There is a distinction between concepts and things, but they are parallel to each other. The order
of concepts, in order that it may reflect reality, must try to correspond (adequation) to the order
of things.
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Essence and Form

Form is the determination of essence, i.e., what makes the essence to be what it is. Form is the
principle of determination.

For material things, the principle of indetermination is matter.

The essence of material things is to have matter and form.

Matter is what makes the being to have quantitative parts.

The essence of simple or immaterial substance is identical with its form.

The essence of material substance is matter and form, hence, form is only a part of the essence
of material substance, although it is the formal part or the principle of determination.

Form is related to matter as determination to indetermination.

Form = act
Matter = potency

------- matter
--------- essence
Ens (material) ------- form
--------- esse

Form brings a potential determination (in matter) to actuality.

Matter is pure potentiality to any determination.

In substantial change, matter is related to form as potency is to act because before the change
takes place, the substance was in potency to become real, and when it actually comes to be, it
passes from potency to act, i.e., it loses one form and acquires another.

Form is more important than matter since matter is for the sake of the form. We eat in order to
live. Material goods are always for the sake of the spiritual goods.

While matter requires form, form of itself does not require matter. Just as effect requires a
cause, a cause does not necessarily have an effect.

Form is the act of the essence, but it is not the act of being. The form is only the essential act,
i.e., what determines the essence to be what it is.

What determines the essence to be (esse), is not the same as what determines the essence to be
what it is (form).
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Matter as Principle of Individuation

The word “individual” comes from “individuum”, or undivided. To be an individual, therefore

is to be.
1. undivided in itself
2. divided from everything else

The concept “man” is undivided in itself (one), but not divided from all men because it is found
in all men. The individual is one itself and also divided from everything else. The uniqueness
of an individual is that it is divided from everything else. A universal, on the other hand, is one
in itself but found in many at the same time.

How are essence and form concretized?

1. essence is multiplied by the individuals

2. but singularized by them
3. essence subsists substantially in the individuals

How is essence multiplied in the individual? The essence of material beings must have a
substantial potency as the foundation of multiplication. This potency cannot be in the form,
since the form is an act, therefore a principle of unity, not of multiplication. (Act is multiplied
by potency). Therefore, it must be in matter.

The diversity of forms produces a diversity of specific essences (dog, man, fish). The diversity
of individual matter which is intrinsically incommunicable (you cannot share the matter of
another with both of you remaining integrally whole) produces only a diversity of individuals
within the same species.

But matter, as principle of indetermination, cannot be as such the principle of individuation. It

needs to be marked by the accident of quantity. Quantity makes distinct one substance from
another in a concrete way.

*the principle of individuation therefore is a matter marked by quantity.

Given two things with exactly similar features, what makes them different from each other?
The accidents of place and quantity (not one but two). There can only be such accidents if there
is matter.

If essence were only a name, then only esse is real. There would be no distinction between
them because only substance is real. Substance is made real by esse. Only esse is real. However,
there is a degree of reality between God and creatures.

In nominalism, essence is only a name. In extreme realism, essence is a substance. Thus, there
are two substances in every being = the being itself and its form (Plato’s world of forms). The
correct Scholastic position is: essence exists in the mind but with foundation in reality.

Nominalism collapsed the real distinction between esse and real essence such that there is no
real distinction between essence and esse in creatures. Consequently, the difference between
God and creatures would only be a difference in degree, not of kind.