Concept
Quiddity
Overview
In scholastic philosophy, "quiddity" (; Latin: quidditas) was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness" or "what it is".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Hence, as long as the faculty exists, its judgment concerning its own proper object does not fail. Now the proper object of the intellect is the "quiddity" of a material thing; and hence, properly speaking, the intellect is not at fault concerning this quiddity; whereas it may go astray as regards the surroundings of the thing in its essence or quiddity, in referring one thing to another, as regards composition or…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Quiddity is; names Quiddity several times.
We must acknowledge that the reasons which produce these things (as heat, and whiteness) are beings, if taken in their totality; but on considering their production, we see that what constitutes a whatness or quiddity (the Aristotelian "what it were to be") in the intelligible world, becomes a quality in the sense-world. Consequently, we always err on the subject of the quiddity, when we try to determine it…
Plotinus, Plotinos
Names Quiddity several times; opens on Quiddity.
Neither is this in the least inconsistent with my principles, as is evident from what I have now said; and would have been evident to you without this, if you had not forgotten what had been so often said before. But as for solid corporeal substances, I desire you to shew where Moses makes any mention of them; and, if they should be mentioned by him, or any other inspired writer, it would still be incumbent on you…
George Berkeley, The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4
Names Quiddity.
Philosophers who discussed Quiddity
Related ideas
- Hamlet
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- Thomas Aquinas
- Metaphysics (Aristotle)
- Haecceity
- Summa Theologica
- Aristotle
- William Shakespeare
- Scholasticism
- Essence
Place in the tradition
Part of Essentialism.