actually a mythical statement of this view that neither reason nor the intelligible order that it reveals is alien to the human soul. Aristotle was originally one of Plato's students, but he came to disagree with what he called the "other-worldliness" of his teacher. For Plato there were two worlds, the world perceived by the senses, and the world of the Forms, the ideals of which the objects in this world are only pale imitations. Aristotle disputed this, asking how, if the Forms are the essences of things, the Forms could exist separated from things, and how, if the Forms were the cause of things, they could exist in a different world? Aristotle made a distinction between form and matter, but he said that these two features of reality could be distinguished only in thought, not in fact. The forms are not separate entities but are embedded in particular things in this world. Every object has both form and matter. Form is universal in that many particulars may have the same form. Form is the thing's essence or nature and is related to its function. The object's matter is what is unique to that object, the object's "thisness," and it stands as the principle of individuation. For Aristotle, reality is composed of a plurality of substances.
The concept of categories is fundamental to a discussion of the observable world, and categories are the most fundamental divisions of certain subject matter. The analysis of categories addresses certain paradoxes involved in our use of language. There are certain qualities we speak about as if they have an independent existence, such as color or sweetness, though these qualities seem to depend on human perception rather than to have an independent existence. These qualities seemed to be different from those solid objects which had an independent existence in reality. In terms of language, the issue involves whether the
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