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Aristotle c. 350 BCE
This short treatise examines how words describe things and how those things can be grouped. Examples such as a particular horse help distinguish individual things from broader groups.
49 pages 57 min reading time
- The first book in Aristotle's writings on logic, and one of the most studied texts in the history of Western philosophy.
- Argues that everything we can say about a thing falls into one of ten basic kinds, such as what it is, how big it is, what it is like, where it is, and when it is.
- Argues that individual things, like one particular person or horse, are the most basic things that exist, and that everything else either describes them or depends on them.
- For over a thousand years it was one of the first books students read in schools and universities across Europe and the Islamic world, often through the commentary of Porphyry and the Latin translation by Boethius.
- Its idea of sorting the world into basic categories shaped later thinkers from Thomas Aquinas to Immanuel Kant, and it still informs how philosophers and computer scientists build systems for classifying things.
Hidden in a cellar
Ancient writers say Aristotle's papers sat hidden in a damp cellar for generations before being found and published.
Written for students
Like his other surviving works, it likely began as teaching material for his school, not a book for the public.
Doubts about the author
Since ancient times, some scholars have questioned whether Aristotle really wrote it, though most now accept it.
Last chapters may be added
Many scholars think the final chapters were joined to the main text later, possibly by an editor.
Translated from Greek by E. M. Edghill