CATEGORY (Gk. garrropia, an accusa tion), in logic and philosophy, one of the great natural divisions into which all conceivable ob jects fall. The ancients, following Aristotle, generally made 10 categories. Under the first all substances are comprised, and all accidents or attributes under the last nine, namely, quan tity, quality, relation, action, condition, time, place, situation and acquired nature. A some what similar arrangement is to be found in the works of the Hindu philosopher Kavida. This arrangement, however, is now obsolete. Des cartes thought that all nature may be better considered under the seven divisions: spirit, matter, quantity, substance, figure, motion and rest. Plato admitted only five categories substance, identity, diversity, motion and rest. The Stoics held four— subjects, qualities, in dependent modes, relative modes. Plotinus ap plied to the intelligible world the categories the One, motion, rest, identity and difference; to the world of sense the categories being, re lation, quantity, quality and motion. Kant's list of categories is: 1. Categories of quantity: unity, plurality, universality. 2. Categories of quality: reality, limitation, negation. 3. Cate gories of relation: substantiality, causality, reci procity. 4. Categories of modality: possibility, actuality, necessity. Kant considered that these categories corresponded to the different classes of judgment, but it was soon realized that the basis-these give to the categories of the list is merely specious. In accordance with his cus
tom of deducing matter of the most concrete nature by a priori methods, Hegel calls a large number of notions categories which other phi losophers would regard as grounded in experi ence. Mill substitutes for Aristotle's set of categories the classification of all things into feelings, minds, bodies and temporal or quali tative relations between feelings. In the phi losophy at the present day, though there are certain writers and schools who make a con siderable use of the process of classifying things in categories — Hussere and Hartmann, for example — there is much less discussion of categories than there used to be. This is due to the fact that we are coming to see that the taking of an inventory of the universe is one of the least of the tasks of metaphysics, which is rather concerned with the analysis of the re lational structure of things. However, even in a view of the world which regards it as a re lational structure, there are bound to be a num ber of ammo genera, such as class, relation, proposition, etc. For a discussion of the cate gory-system of a view of this type, see LOGIC, SYMBOLIC. Consult the works of the various writers mentioned, and especially von Hart mann, E., (Kategorienlehre) (1896).