Thus, while the real essence, to speak still only of composite beings, consists in the collection of all those physical component parts that are required to constitute the entity what it is, either actually or potentially existent, without which it can be neither actual nor potential, the logical essence is no more than the composition of ideas or notions, abstracted mentally and referred together in what is known as 'second intentions'. Here the essence, humanity, is metaphysical or logical. On the other hand, we may consider man as the result of a composition of genus proximum and differentia ultima, i.e. Apart from any act of abstraction, body, and soul exist in the physical order as the constituents of man. Thus if we consider man as a being composed of matter and form, body and soul, the physical essence will be the body and soul. The real or physical essence of compound entities consists of or results from, the union of the constituent parts. This distinction is of considerable importance. i)ДЄ further synonym of essence is species, but it is to be carefully noted that essence in this connexion is used rather with a logical or metaphysical connotation than with a real or physical one. Thomas: 'Nature is seen to signify the essence of a thing according to as it has relation to its proper operation' (De Ente et essentia, cap. As the essence is that whereby any given thing is that which it is, the ground of its characteristics and the principle of its being, so its nature is that whereby it acts as it does, the essence considered as the foundation and principle of its operation. Synolon]]Д®ssence and nature express the same reality envisaged in the two points of view as being or acting.

3), the essence of a thing is that which is expressed by its definition. As furnishing in this manner an answer to the question What? (Quid?) - as, e.g., What is man? - essence is equivalent to quiddity and thus, as St. Thus the notion of the essence is seen to be the abstract counterpart of the concrete entity the latter signifying that which is or may be (ens actu, ens potentiГў), while the former points to the reason or ground why it is precisely what it is. The essence is thus the radical or ground from which the various properties of a thing emanate and to which they are necessarily referred. The essence is properly described as that whereby a thing is what it is, an equivalent of the to ti en einai of Aristotle (Metaph., VII, 7). But, it is obvious upon reflection that 'what a thing is' and 'that it is' are completely different statements. Hence, it is a universal principle making many material individuals be of the same kind (for angels, it makes each angel be a species unto itself). It is a formal principle since for material reality, it is abstracted by the human intellect. It is the quiddity of the thing, that which is known about it by our forming of a concept. 4 Philosophers' definitions of existenceД®ssence may be described as the 'what' of a thing.

Essence of the gods mod