In the Categories, Aristotle claims that the most distinctive mark of substance is that it persists through change of contraries (4a10–11), a claim he explains elsewhere by appeal to hylomorphism. This explanation has been characterized as an answer to what I call the Conditions Question, a question that asks for the conditions under which a substance before and after a change are identical. The evidence that Aristotle uses hylomorphism to answer this question is inconclusive, I argue. But I argue that Aristotle does use hylomorphism to answer a different question about persistence, a question that asks why substances are not destroyed as they change. I call this the Survival Question, and I argue that Aristotle’s answer to it does not entail an answer to the Conditions Question; Aristotle can consistently explain why substances are not destroyed as they admit contraries without being committed to any view about what, if anything, identity through time for substances consists in.

中文翻译：

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论亚里士多德的执着

在《分类》中，亚里斯多德声称物质的最独特标志是它通过改变矛盾而持续存在（4a10-11），他在其他地方通过呼吁同质性来解释这一说法。这种解释的特征是对我所谓的条件问题的回答，条件问题是一个问题，要求改变前后的物质均相同的条件。我认为，亚里斯多德使用同质性来回答这个问题的证据尚无定论。但是我认为亚里斯多德确实使用同质性来回答关于持久性的另一个问题，这个问题问为什么物质在变化时不会被破坏。我称其为生存问题，我认为亚里斯多德的答案并不意味着条件问题的答案。