Substance — What exists by itself and sustains attributes. For Aristotle, the primary substance is the concrete individual (Socrates); the secondary substance is the species (man). Descartes: there are three substances — God (infinite, self-subsisting), mind (res cogitans), and matter (res extensa). Spinoza: there is only one substance — God or Nature (Deus sive Natura) — of which everything else is a mode. Leibniz: substances are monads, simple and immaterial units.
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