ATTRIBUTE, ATTRIBUTUM, in Philosophy, a Property which agrees to some Person, or Thing; or a Quality, which determines something to be after a certain Manner. See PROPERTY and QUALITY.
Thus, Understanding is an Attribute of Mind; Figure, an Attribute of Body, etc. Spinoza makes the Soul and the Body to be of the same Substance; with this only Difference, that the Soul is to be conceived under the Attribute of Thought, and the Body under that of Extension. See SUBSTANCE, SPINOSISM, etc.
Of the several Attributes belonging to any Substance, that which presents itself first, and which the Mind conceives as the Foundation of all the rest, is called its essential Attribute. See ESSENCE and ESSENTIAL.
Thus, Extension is by some; and Solidity by others, made the essential Attribute of Body or Matter. See BODY, MATTER, EXTENSION, SOLIDITY, etc. The other Attributes are called accidental ones. See ACCIDENT. Mr. Lock endeavours to prove, that Thinking, which the Cartesians make the essential Attribute of the Mind, is only an accidental one. See THINKING, MIND, SOUL, etc.
