Accident
| Category | Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Depth | Major |
| Article type | local Catholic reference article |
Definition
An accident, in Aristotelian philosophy, is a feature that exists in a subject rather than as a complete thing on its own. A person's height, posture and acquired knowledge are examples. The term does not mean a mishap, a coincidence or something unimportant. A feature can be extremely important without being a substance.
Catholic usage
Learning a language changes a person without producing a new human being. The acquired ability is real, but it belongs to someone. In this account, the person is the subject and the ability is an accidental perfection. Calling it accidental does not deny its value or the effort required to acquire it.
Some properties follow regularly from a nature; others are temporary or contingent. Consequently, “accident” in the broad metaphysical sense is not identical with “a feature that can easily be removed.” Different questions about dependence, necessity and change must be kept apart.
Doctrinal context
The distinction between substance and accident helps explain persistence through alteration. A wall can become warmer or be repainted without becoming a wholly different kind of thing. Its temperature and colour are real determinations, not independent objects that happen to stand nearby.
Catholic Eucharistic teaching gives the vocabulary an exceptional application. Aquinas argues that the accidents of bread and wine remain after the conversion of their substance, sustained by divine power. This is not what accidents normally do by their own nature. It is a theological explanation of a sacramental miracle, not a general rule for ordinary physical changes.
The doctrine also does not say that the Eucharistic appearances are an optical trick. The sensible features really remain. Establishing the sacramental claim, however, requires Christ's institution and the Church's teaching; the philosophical definition of accident cannot prove it on its own.
Distinctions and safeguards
An accident is not necessarily an illusion or a dispensable decoration. Nor is accidental change the same as chance causation. A deliberately painted surface undergoes an accidental change even though the painter's action is planned. One word can serve several technical discussions, so its sense must be stated.
Can an accident exist without a subject?
Naturally, an accident depends on a subject. Aquinas treats the Eucharist as an exceptional divine sustaining of the remaining accidents; he does not redefine normal creatures as independent bundles of colour and quantity. The explanation makes sense only within the wider theological claim. It should not be presented as a laboratory discovery or as an ordinary example that proves the miracle.