Accident

Hegel (Logic of Essence, moment of substance)

The accident (accidents, plural) is the changing, inessential, as opposed to enduring substance. Traditionally: substance has accidents (properties). Hegel's point: substance IS nothing other than the totality of its accidents. There is no substrate behind the properties. The accidents are not external to substance but are its self-differentiation. Substance brings forth its accidents out of itself (it is active, not passive).

Origin

Latin *accidens* (that which is added, the non-essential). Aristotle: *symbebēkos* – what belongs to a substance but does not belong to its essence. Scholasticism: accidents cannot exist without substance. Spinoza: modes of substance. Hegel: substance as the living totality of accidents.

In Hegel

Enz. §150–151; *Science of Logic*, vol. 2, Actuality

Cross-references

Substance · Wesen [Essence] · Appearance · Actuality · Doctrine of Essence

Im buch

Ch. 7.8