Hypokeimenon
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Hypokeimenon is a term in metaphysics which literally means the "underlying thing" (Latin subiectum). To search for the hypokeimenon is to search for that substance which persists in a thing going through change—its essential being.
According to Aristotle's definition (in Categories), hypokeimenon is something which can be predicated by other things, but cannot be a predicate of others.
It is conceptually similar to Baruch Spinoza's substance and Immanuel Kant's concept of the noumenon (in The Critique of Pure Reason).
Empiricists and Phenomenalists such as George Berkeley criticize the notion of any "underlying" substance which lies "behind" appearances, arguing instead that appearances are the only true reality.
