CATEGORIES Philosophical categories are classes, genera, or types supposed to mark necessary divisions within our conceptual scheme, divisions that we must recognize if we are to make literal sense in our discourse about the world. To say that two entities belong to different categories is to say that they have literally nothing in common, that we cannot apply the same descriptive terms to both unless we speak metaphorically or equivocally. Aristotelian Theory The word category was first used as a technical term in philosophy by Aristotle. In his short treatise called Categories, he held that every uncombined expression signifies (denotes, refers to) one or more things falling in at least one of the following ten classes: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, posture, state, action, and passion. By 'uncombined expression' Aristotle meant an expression considered apart from its combination with other expressions in a sentence, and he intended his account to apply only to those expressions we now call 'descriptive' and 'nonlogical.' Logical expressions, such as 'not,' 'or,' 'some,' and 'every,' are excluded; these were called by medieval philosophers 'syncategorematic,' to distinguish them from the categorematic expressions covered by Aristotle's account of categories.

Each of the ten classes of entities signified constitutes a category, or genus, of entities, and each categorematic expression is said to be an expression in the category constituted by the class of entities it signifies. The nouns 'plant' and 'animal,' for example, signify kinds of substances and are said to be expressions in the category of substance; the nouns 'color' and 'justice' signify kinds of qualities and are said to be expressions in the category of quality. On the other hand, the adjectives 'colored' and 'just' signify, respectively, colored and just things (substances) and also connote (consignify) the qualities color and justice. Aristotle labeled such expressions 'derivative terms' or 'paronyms' and held that instead of signifying substances simply, as expressions in the category of substance do, they signify substances derivatively by connoting accidents of substances.

Categories 1 - 5: Substance and Accident The Categories is one of Aristotle’s earliest works. Its title comes from the list in chapter 4 of ten things that can be signified by an individual term. Aristotle named 10 categories: passion. For example, 'A five-foot tall (quantity) man (substance) who was a thinker (quality) sat (position) on a bus (place) one morning (time), feeling hungry (state), but continuing to do a crossword puzzle (action) enthusiastically (passion).'

Arduino / Intel Galileo. Serial port component for lazarus come forth by carmen de. In this code, all messages are printed but you can program your Arduino to filtering messages. In your serial monitor you should receive data.

Although Aristotle implied that his ten categories constitute the ten highest genera of entities and hence the only true genera —the only genera that cannot be taken as species of higher genera —he also implied that it is not essential to his theory that the categories be exactly ten in number or even that they be mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Categories are listed in various of Aristotle's writings, but the list usually stops short of ten without indication that categories have been omitted. He explicitly stated that no absurdity would result if the same items were included in both the category of quality and that of relation. He remarked that the expressions 'rare,' 'dense,' 'rough,' and 'smooth' do not signify qualities, since they apply to a substance with reference to a quality it possesses, yet he did not specify in which category or categories these expressions are included. Despite these indications that his theory of categories is not entirely complete, medieval philosophers generally wrote as though Aristotle's list of ten provided a final, exhaustive enumeration of the highest genera of being. What is essential to Aristotle's theory of categories is that substances be properly distinguished from accidents and essential predication from accidental predication. Any entity, regardless of the category in which it is included, can be an entity referred to by the subject term of an essential predication.

'Man is an animal.' 'Red is a color.'

'Four is a number.' 'A year is twelve months.' The subject terms denote entities that fall, respectively, in the categories of substance, quality, quantity, and time, and the predication in each case is essential.

On the other hand, only entities in the category of substance can be entities referred to by subject terms of accidental predication. There is no such thing as an accident of an accident; accidents happen to substances and not to other accidents. 'Red is darker than orange' does not assert something that happens to be, but need not be, true of red; it asserts what is essentially true of red, something that red must always be if it is to remain the color red. 'Red is John's favorite color' does not assert anything that may happen to be true of red; rather, it asserts something that may happen to be true of John. To undergo change through time while remaining numerically one and the same thing is what principally distinguishes substances from entities in other categories. If John ceases to regard red as his favorite color, we say not that red has changed while remaining the same color but that John has changed while remaining the same person. Categorematic expressions, for Aristotle, are technically 'predicates,' but they are not 'predicates' in a sense that keeps them from serving as subject terms in essential predication.