PORPHYRY TREE: WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT IS FOR AND EXAMPLES - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

The Porfirio tree is a diagram created by the philosophical thinker of the same name, in the 3rd century. The diagram represents the relationships of genus, species and individual based on the categories of their substances. It was proposed for the first time in the introduction written by Porphyry himself to the ideas of Aristotle.

He presented the classification of Greek by divided categories, which were then represented in tree-shaped diagrams. Through this diagram, each species is identified taking into consideration its gender and its specific differences.

What does it consist of?

Porfirio's ideas expanded those of Aristotle's categories. Porfirio arranged them in a way that looked like the trunk of a tree. It is made up of three columns of words: the first divides the genus and the species into two parts, which arise from a supreme genus called substance.

Porfirio never drew the shape of a tree in his original work, nor did his text refer to any type of drawing. However, during the Renaissance the authors who shaped their texts included the graphic as their representation.

In addition, the Porfirio tree is the first tree of knowledge in the history of mankind, of which there is a written record.

Porfirio's ideas are based on a common system that was used in medieval times to define human existence and all the entities found on the planet.

What is it for?

The Porphyry tree categorizes living organisms depending on their composition. You can categorize people, animals, or any plant, rock, or item. All of this is done by defining said entity based on its substance.

In this sense, the substance is what makes up or makes the entity to be studied. For example, a person is rational, mortal, sensitive, animated, and corporeal, depending on her substance. These ideas were raised by Porfirio and, given their nature, they were given a tree diagram form.

In short, the Porfirio tree serves to visually identify the composition of substances and objects without relying on a complex written system.

This system serves as an extension of the categories proposed by Aristotle centuries before Porfirio's birth. It is based on Aristotelian ideas and expands them to give a more concrete definition of them.

Examples

Basic

The simplest example to explain the Porphyry tree is the common definition of any object or animal. Without a graph, it is valid to say that a tiger, for example, is a non-rational, deadly, sensitive, animated and corporeal animal.

These categories are placed in the diagram to give a clearer explanation, always starting from the substance.

Complex (graph)

The second example is a graphical representation of the diagram, which can have many shapes; however, they all have the same basic order.

The extensions that appear on the sides are the metaphorical branches of the tree and dictate the type of substance and its properties. Depending on the properties, the substance has an increasingly complex definition.

The tree in its totality explains the substantial definitions, from a substance itself in its pure state to the plate, which in this case means being; that is, a specific person and not a human being.

Order

At the top of the diagram, the substance is shown as the main gene. Although philosophically it could be inferred that there is something superior to substance, the beginning of this diagram starts from this; therefore, their veracity is not judged.

The two branches that arise from the substance (thinking and extensible) are the two types of substance that exist. This diagram does not give a name to the type of thinking substance, but it is understood to be the mind. On the other hand, the extensible has been the body.

The order dictates each division of the substance and this gives each a certain level of coherence. Once the body is divided, it is treated as the main substance and, therefore, two branches emerge from it, which are their differences.

Again, the branch located on the left side (which in the case of the body is inanimate) does not have a definition of substance. The right, which is the animated one, has been the animal.

Each time you go down the tree, the property (difference) of each part of the trunk is broken down, creating a more specific definition of each one.

It is a philosophical way of connecting each part to each other and showing how each entity is related to the origin of life.

The human and the species

There is a particular reason why the last gene (plate) is not delineated, unlike the previous ones. Plato is a specific person and not a species; the rest of the words that make up the trunk of the diagram are all species in particular.

Beyond the human, no species is taken into account, but simply a type of human. The two subdivisions it presents (the branches "this" and "that") are the differences of humans, which serve to identify each member of the species in particular.

Other diagrams

It is possible to find other diagrams that start from a different substance and, at the end of this, the human is not found.

Porfirio's theory simply gives a delimited order and a way to divide the differences between them, but the tree is moldable and adapts to different philosophical thoughts and investigations.

References

1. The Porphyrian Tree: The Earliest Metaphorical Tree of Knowledge, History of Information, (nd). Taken from historyofinformation.ocm
2. Porphyrian Tree, The Catholic Encylopedia, 2003. Taken from encyclopedia.com
3. Porphyrian Tree, Oxford Dictionary, (nd). Taken from oxforddictionaries.com
4. Porphyry, The Editors of Encylopaedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from Britannica.com
5. Porphyrian Tree, Wikipedia in English, March 18, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org