The Stoic Theory of Categories

Abstract

Abstract both Plotinus (6. 1. 25. 1–3) and Simplicius (InCateg. 66. 32–67. 2 and 67. 17–19) report that the Stoics posited four summagenera of beings, [ineq] , πoιóν πως [ineq], and πρóς τí πως [ineq]; this list is confirmed, piecemeal, by many other texts, and Plutarch presupposes the whole list when he says that the Stoics ‘make each of us four’ (Comm. not. 1083 E). Plotinus and Simplicius assume that the Stoic list of genera is in competition with the ten Aristotelian categories, and scholarly convention (which I shall follow) speaks of Stoic as well as Aristotelian summagenera as ‘categories’. The comparison with the Aristotelian list of categories must be at least partly justified, since the Stoics and Aristotle both take the Platonic distinction between substance and quality as the starting-point for their list of genera.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 104 citations exist upstream.