SUBSTANCE, in philosophy, that which is and abides as distinguished from accident, which has no existence of itself, and is essentially mutable. The derivation of the word in this sense is, according to Augustine, from the Latin subsistere, and so = that which subsists of or by itself; Locke prefers to connect it with the Latin substo = to stand un der, to support, to uphold.
The first idea of substance is probably derived from the consciousness of self— the conviction gained by experience that, while sensations, thoughts, and pur poses are continually changing, the Ego constantly remains the same. Observa tion teaches us that bodies external to us remain the same as to quantity or extension, though their color and figure, their state of motion or of rest may be changed. Locke, without departing from the knowable, placed the substance of an object in some essential or funda mental quality, the presence of which maintained, while its removal destroyed, the identity of the object, and Fichte made it consist in a synthesis of attri butes; holding that these, synthetically united, gave substance, while substance analyzed gave attributes.
In theology, essence, nature, being. Used specially of the Three Persons in the Godhead, who are said to be the same substance, i. e., to possess one com mon essence. The principle of substance in philosophy is the law of the human mind by which every quality or mode of being is referred to a substance. In algebra, the operation of putting one quantity in place of another, to which it is equal, but differently expressed.
In theology, the doctrine that in the crucifixion Christ was divinely substi tuted for, took the place, of, the elect, or of all mankind obeying the law in their stead, suffering the penalty expi ating their sins, and procuring for them salvation. Used also of the principle involved in the bloody sacrifices of the Jewish economy (in which the animals were types of Christ). and in a still wider sense of the offering of the lower animals in the place of men, and of un bloody in the place of bloody sacrifices in ethnic religions. See ARMINIANISM : CALVINISM : SACRIFICE.