Immutability of species aristotle biography

1. Kinds of Change

The classical and medieval authors who developed DDI divided attributes into essential and accidental. Essential attributes are roughly those that help define the kind of thing an item is.

A thing cannot exist without having its essence. So the only way to gain an essential attribute is to begin to exist, and the only way to lose one is to cease to exist.

Immutability of species definition

Classical/medieval authors call beginning to exist generation, not change. They call ceasing to exist corruption, not change. They restrict the term “change” to gain or loss of an accident, a non-essential attribute.

Their DDS asserted that God cannot change.

Immutability of species aristotle biography summary

So it does not entail that God cannot begin or cease to exist. It asserts only that He cannot gain or lose an accident.

Accidental attributes can be had intrinsically or extrinsically. I explain these notions as follows: an item x has a property F intrinsically just if whether x is F is settled entirely by x, x&rsqu