''Hypokeimenon'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ὑποκείμενον), later often material substratum, is a term in

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

which literally means the "underlying thing" (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''subiectum''). To search for the ''hypokeimenon'' is to search for that substance that persists in a thing going through change—its basic

essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

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According to

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

's definition, ''hypokeimenon'' is something which can be predicated by other things, but cannot be a predicate of others. The existence of a material substratum was posited by John Locke, with conceptual similarities to Baruch Spinoza's ''substance'' and

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

's concept of the ''

noumenon In philosophy, a noumenon (, ; ; noumena) is a posited object or an event that exists independently of human sense and/or perception. The term ''noumenon'' is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to, the term ''phenomenon'', which ...

'' (in '' The Critique of Pure Reason''). Locke theorised that when all ''sensible properties'' were abstracted away from an object, such as its colour, weight, density or taste, there would still be something left to which the properties had adhered—something which allowed the object to exist independently of the ''sensible properties'' that it manifested in the beholder. Locke saw this

ontological In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

ingredient as necessary if one is to be able to consider objects as existing independently of one's own mind. The material substratum proved a difficult idea for Locke as by its very nature its existence could not be directly proven in the manner endorsed by empiricists (i.e., proof by exhibition in experience).Loeb, L. E., ''Reflection and the Stability of Belief: Essays on Descartes, Hume, and Reid'' (

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, 2010)
p. 166
Nevertheless, he believed that the philosophical reasons for it were strong enough for its existence to be considered proved. The existence of the substratum was denied by

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. In his '' Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous'', Berkeley maintained that an object consists of nothing more than those ''sensible properties'' (or possible ''sensible properties'') that the object manifests, and that those ''sensible properties'' only exist so long as the act of perceiving them does.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2015 Philosophy of Aristotle Essentialism Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics

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References