Decotomic classification diagram of the types of substance produced by the neoplatonic philosopher Porfirio of the school of Rome of the third century in the Isagoge or Introduction to the categories of Aristotle . The shape of a tree was given to renaissance philosophers. It is a descending dichotomous classification from the universal to the particular by reseating a tree with branches to the right and left. The substance may be corporeal or disembodied; the body can be animated (living) or inanimate; the living can be sensitive (animal) or insensitive; the animal can be rational (being human) or irrational; one of the humans is Plato and another Aristotle.
