Most topics of present-day ontological debate are discussed within a specific ontological research paradigm that has dominated ontological inquiry throughout its history. Since this paradigm has its starting point in Aristotle and contains many elements of Aristotle's substance metaphysics, one might justifiedly speak of a historical hegemony of the paradigm of substance ontology". It is important to note, however, that the paradigm reaches beyond the commitment to the dualist categorial framework of 'substance" and "attribute" — in fact, being committed to substances and attributes is not even essential to it. Rather, the paradigm of substance ontology consists primarily of a set of principles which governs the construction of ontological theories.