Amount of substance Amount of substance Amount of substance is a standard-defined quantity that measures the size of an ensemble of particles, such as atoms, molecules, electrons, and other particles. It is sometimes referred to as chemical amount. The International System of Units (SI) defines the amount of substance to be proportional to the number of entities present. The SI unit for amount of substance is the mole. It has the unit symbol mol. The proportionality constant is the inverse of the Avogadro constant. The mole is defined as the amount of substance that contains an equal number of elementary entities as there
Mental substance Mental substance Mental substance is the idea held by dualists and idealists, that minds are made-up of non-physical substance. This substance is often referred to as consciousness. This is opposed to the materialists, who hold that what we normally think of as mental substance is ultimately physical matter (i.e., brains). Descartes, who was most famous for the assertion "I think therefore I am", has had a lot of influence on the mind–body problem. He describes his theory of mental substance (which he calls res cogitans distinguishing it from the "res extensa") in the "Second Meditation" (II.8) and in "Principia Philosophiae"