In his treatise Categories Aristotle breaks down the function of words in relation to each other. He defines language in terms of primary substances, species and genus. In terms of meaning, on can associate the intelligibles and perceptibles that Al-Farabi wrote of to the primary substances and to the species and genus, respectively. The primary substances are subjects and all other entities depend on them, there wouldn’t be species or genus without primary substances. Aristotle’s analysis of language is also a reflection of how reality is simply a creation; random words, assigned to elements of the universe, define our existence. This reading was overall boring and difficult but Aristotle reveals his thought process most lucidly in the paragraph entitled There Are Ten Kinds Of Beings. Here he identifies the various types of primary substances said without combining other words. These beings are, “substance or quantity or quality or relative or where or when or being in a position or having or acting on or being affected.” Aristotle also writes that in order for these primary substances to be true or false, that is, to have affirmation, they must be combined with other words. This begs the question; does combination affirm the existence of some being because it makes it true or false? Is man just being called man not enough confirmation of his existence?
