ABSTRACT
The unique individuality of a thing is something over and above its properties and an explanation must be found for it. There are two objections to the theory of the individuating power of ordinal properties. The first arises in a more or less practical form but it has a theoretical implication. The second and more powerful objection is that two distinct things may occupy exactly the same place in the ordinal array of the possessors of a variable characteristic. One kind of necessarily individuating property is position in space and time. Substance in its first sense, as individuator, is position. Position individuates and since it cannot be identified in purely general predicative terms there is more to an individual thing than the sum of its qualities. A concrete individual or Aristotelian substance is a set of qualities manifested at a position and of such things the Aristotelian principle of inherence is correct.
