Phylum, especie e individuo en Xavier Zubiri

Abstract

This article studies the ontology proposed by Xavier Zubiri in his work Sobre la esencia [On Essence], in order to discover how he treats the problem of the quidditative essence. After certain prior considerations, the article examines the traditional conception of specific essence, gradually disarticulating the essence-speciesindividual relation. With the phylum understood as a constitutive scheme transmitted genetically, and the species as that which constitutes the belonging of an organism to its phylum, the quidditative essence is shown to be a moment of the individual constitutive essence.