Plasticity reveals the a posteriori as ontologically essential to substance

Evidence

Habit would not have this power of plasticity if it did not, in the process of bringing the possible to actuality, manifest a virtuality already inscribed within essence itself. This virtuality authorizes essence in its free ‘interpretations’ in the same way as the ‘type’ legitimates the sculptor’s improvisations. The investigation of ‘plastic individuality’ brings out one of the fundamental aspects of the Hegelian theory of substance: the recognition of the essential status of the a posteriori. The speculative meaning of the Anthropology transcends the particular anthropological horizon, becoming part of the ontological principle at its foundation. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 602

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition: the ‘essential status of the a posteriori’ — plasticity shows substance needs its accidental modifications.
• XREF: Directly connects to the reader’s plasticity/brain work: experience (the a posteriori) is not added to essence but constitutes it — parallel to how brain plasticity means experience is constitutive, not epiphenomenal.