39. Prime Matter, Potentiality, and Understanding Substantial Change

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Prime Matter and Its Knowability #

• Prime matter is substance in pure potentiality only, not an actual substance
• It cannot be known directly “by itself” but only through proportion (analogical reasoning)
• The classic proportion: as clay relates to sphere and cube, so prime matter relates to man and dog
• Unlike the clay analogy, prime matter is not an actual substance, and man/dog are not accidents—the proportion is therefore imperfect but instructive
• Prime matter cannot be sensed, imagined, or observed; it can only be reasoned about

The Universal Difficulty: Understanding Potentiality #

• Ability/potentiality is known only through the acts for which it is an ability—never directly
• Examples: the ability to see (known through seeing), ability to speak English (known through speaking)
• This applies universally to all potentialities, making prime matter—as pure potentiality—the hardest to understand
• False imagination (Weizsäcker’s concept): when we try to imagine prime matter, we necessarily make it actual, thus falsifying what it is
• The Megarians denied potentiality exists because it cannot be sensed or imagined; Aristotle refutes them by showing potentiality is demonstrated through experience (we gain and lose abilities daily)

Why Prime Matter Must Exist #

• If substantial change occurs (man and dog come into being and pass away), there must be an underlying subject
• This subject cannot be an actual substance (else it would be eternal and all change would be merely accidental)
• Therefore, the underlying subject must be substance in potentiality—prime matter
• The argument is less certain regarding pre-Socratic “elements” (earth, air, fire, water) but very strong regarding man and dog as substances

Modern Physics and the Problem of Matter #

• Modern science (from molecules to atoms to elementary particles) shows that no level of matter is “first” or ultimate
• Heisenberg established: “Every elementary particle is composed of all the rest”—a formula remarkably similar to Anaxagoras’s position
• Elementary particles show complete mutability; none is eternal
• High-energy experiments: When particles collide, one disappears and sometimes new particles with greater mass emerge (unlike molecular breakdown)
• Modern physicists rediscover the need for understanding pure potentiality, as Aristotle taught
• Heisenberg’s conclusion: “We know matter only through the forms of matter. We don’t know matter by itself.”

The Soul as Substantial Form (Synthesis of Plato’s Phaedo) #

• Two extreme positions in Phaedo:
  1. Soul is a complete substance distinct from and independent of the body (Platonists)
  2. Soul is the harmony or organization of the body (Pythagoreans/modern consensus)
• Problems with each extreme:
  • Complete substance view: cannot explain the unity of man; the body would not be truly part of us
  • Harmony/organization view: cannot explain the soul’s activities not dependent on bodily organs; cannot explain why the soul resists bodily inclinations (fasting, temperance)
• The truth (Aristotelian synthesis): The soul is a substantial form—something substantial (not mere accident) but not a complete substance in itself
• This position explains both the unity of man (body is truly part of us) and the soul’s transcendence (has intellectual operations not dependent on the body)
• Analogy to theological mysteries: Just as the Trinity (three persons, one nature) explains why errors deny either the Trinity or the unity, so the soul as substantial form explains why both extreme positions have partial truth

Four Senses of “Part” #

• Understanding “part” in different senses is crucial for understanding soul-body composition
• Quantitative parts: individual elements (letters C, A, T in word “cat”)
• Essential parts: matter and form together (letters AND their order—the form that makes it a word)
• The soul-body relationship uses the essential-parts sense, not the quantitative sense
• Many fail to understand the soul because they get “stuck” on the first meaning of a word and cannot see other meanings (impositio nominis—the placing of a name on something, then carrying it over to other things through similarity)

The Eight Meanings of “In” (Being In) #

• Berquist reviews Aristotle’s eight meanings of “in” from the Physics (Book IV) and Metaphysics (Book V)
• Relevant to understanding prime matter:
  1. In place: spatial location (you in this room)
  2. Part in whole: quantitative parts (teeth in mouth)
  3. Genus in species: definitional parts (quadrilateral in the definition of square)
  4. Species in genus: universal whole (man in animal)
  5. Form in matter: essential parts (form in matter is in ability only)
  6. Active potentiality: power or dominion (I have you in my power)
• The equivocation between senses 1 and 5 causes great confusion: people imagine prime matter “in” substances the way objects are “in” a room (actually present), rather than understanding it as present only in potentiality

Key Arguments #

Argument for Prime Matter from Substantial Change #

1. Substantial change occurs (men and dogs come into being and pass away)
2. Every change requires an underlying subject that persists through the change
3. This subject cannot be an actual substance (else all change would be accidental only)
4. Therefore, the subject must be substance in potentiality alone = prime matter

Why Prime Matter Is Known Only Through Proportion #

1. Prime matter is pure potentiality with no actual being
2. Potentiality cannot be known directly; it is known only through the acts it enables
3. Prime matter has no acts; it is underlying matter before any form actualizes it
4. Therefore, it can be known only by reasoning: understanding its relationship to actual substances through proportion
5. The proportion works because just as clay (actual substance) can become sphere or cube (accidents), prime matter can underlie man or dog (substances)—though the analogy is imperfect

Why Understanding Ability Is Difficult #

1. We tend to imagine things, making them actual in imagination
2. Ability cannot be imagined; any attempt to imagine it actualizes it falsely
3. We can only recognize ability through experience of its acts
4. Prime matter, being pure ability, most deeply resists our understanding
5. Yet we can reason to its necessity and know it through proportion

Important Definitions #

• Prime Matter (First Matter) (prima materia): The ultimate subject underlying all substantial change; pure potentiality; substance in ability only; knowable only through proportion, never in itself
• Potentiality/Ability (potentia): The capacity to be or to act; known only through the acts it enables; cannot be sensed or directly imagined
• Substantial Form: The principle that actualizes prime matter into a particular substance; in the case of living things, the soul
• False Imagination (imaginatio falsa): The cognitive error of making actual in imagination what exists only in potentiality; the fundamental source of deception when studying prime matter
• Proportion (proportio): A relationship of similarity between four terms (A:B::C:D) used to know what cannot be known directly
• Essential Parts (partes essentiales): Matter and form together (contrasted with quantitative parts and definitional parts)
• Impositio Nominis: The placing or imposition of a name upon something; the original assignment of meaning to a term
• Translatio: The carrying over or transfer of a name from one thing to another based on similarity or connection

Examples & Illustrations #

Clay and Shapes #

• Clay molded into sphere, then remodeled into cube: the clay persists as underlying subject while the shape (accident) changes
• Illustrates accidental change with an actual substance as subject
• Proportionally similar (though imperfectly) to how prime matter underlies substantial change

Substantial Change in Living Things #

• Man or dog coming into existence (birth) and ceasing to exist (death)
• Demonstrates that substantial change occurs in nature
• Shows necessity of an underlying subject that cannot itself be an actual substance

The Word “Cat” and Its Parts #

• Quantitative parts: C, A, T (individual letters)
• If you remove any letter, nothing remains
• Essential parts: the letters AND their order (the form)
• The letters alone could spell “act” or “tac”—the order (form) is essential
• Shows how the same components can compose different wholes depending on form
• Illustrates the soul-body relationship (not quantitative parts, but essential parts)

Ability and Its Knowledge #

• Ball player’s ability to pitch: We see the pitching, not the ability itself; ability is known through its act
• Ability to speak French: Only recognized when actually speaking; lost when not exercised
• Megarian objection: “You close your eyes and become blind; you recover your sight. If you stop playing piano, you lose the ability.” Yet we know these abilities exist despite not seeing them

Modern Physics Examples #

• Molecules: Not the ultimate form of matter; composed of atoms
• Atoms: Not the ultimate; composed of protons, neutrons, electrons
• Elementary particles: Subject to transformation; one can become another in high-energy collisions
• Heisenberg’s formula: “Every elementary particle is composed of all the rest”—shows that even at the most basic physical level, we cannot find an ultimate actual substance; matter is fundamentally characterized by potentiality for transformation

Light and the Prism (de Broglie) #

• 19th-century view: White light contains all colors actually; the prism merely separates them (change of place)
• Modern view: Colors exist in white light only as possibilities until the prism actualizes them (potentiality)
• Illustrates how modern physics rediscovered the Aristotelian concept of potentiality

Objects in a Room vs. Prime Matter in Substances #

• A chair in another room: we can move it (actual, in place)
• A wooden chair potential in a tree: the form is not actually in the tree; the tree has the matter but not the form (in potentiality)
• The confusion arises from equivocating between “in place” and “in potentiality”

John Locke and the General Triangle #

• Locke tries to imagine a triangle in general
• But any triangle he imagines is particular (equilateral, isosceles, or scalene)
• He cannot transcend imagination to grasp the general concept
• Shows how imagination falsifies what is only in ability (the potential for being various kinds of triangles)

Notable Quotes #

“If you don’t understand change, you don’t understand anything. From the first to the last, if you don’t understand change, you don’t understand anything.” (Berquist, summarizing Aristotle’s principle)

“The first matter is knowable by proportion. It’s not knowable by itself.” (Berquist)

“Ability is knowable only through the act for which it is an ability.” (Berquist, expressing Aristotelian principle)

“When we imagine something, we make it actual in our imagination. And so when we try to imagine the first matter, we necessarily falsify what it is.” (Berquist, citing Weizsäcker)

“We know matter only through the forms of matter. We don’t know matter by itself.” (Heisenberg, cited by Berquist)

“Every elementary particle is composed of all the rest.” (Well-known formula in particle physics, cited by Heisenberg; noted by Berquist as paralleling Anaxagoras)

“Aristotle said in the Nicomachean Ethics, after the definition of the purpose of man, ‘With the truth, all things harmonize.’ And you can harmonize everything that we know about man with that understanding of the soul.” (Berquist)

Questions Addressed #

What is Prime Matter? #

• Answer: It is substance in pure potentiality only—the ultimate subject underlying all substantial change; it cannot be an actual substance (else substantial change would be impossible), nor can it be an accident
• How known: Only through reasoning by proportion, never directly through sense or imagination

Why Is Prime Matter So Difficult to Understand? #

• Answer: Because it is pure ability/potentiality; ability cannot be sensed or imagined directly; we can only recognize ability through the acts it enables; our tendency to imagine makes it actual, thus falsifying it

How Can We Know What Cannot Be Sensed or Imagined? #

• Answer: Through reason (discursive understanding), which knows one thing through another; specifically, through proportion, understanding the relationship of prime matter to actual substances by analogy with the relationship of clay to shapes

Why Did Pre-Socratic Philosophers Deny Substantial Change? #

• Answer: They could not understand pure potentiality; they tried instead to make prime matter an actual substance (water, air, fire, earth) or multiple actual substances; without understanding ability, they could not conceive substantial change

Does Modern Physics Support or Contradict Aristotle on Matter? #

• Answer: Modern physics increasingly supports Aristotle; physicists discovered that matter at all levels shows complete mutability and can only be understood through the forms it takes (Heisenberg); elementary particle theory rediscovers the need for understanding pure potentiality

Is the Soul a Substance or a Form? #

• Answer: The soul is a substantial form—it is something substantial (not a mere accident) but not a complete substance in itself; it is the form (actualizing principle) of the body; this explains both the unity of man and the soul’s transcendent activities

Why Do Both Extreme Positions (Soul as Complete Substance vs. Soul as Harmony) Have Apparent Support? #

• Answer: Each captures part of the truth; the soul-as-substance position correctly recognizes the soul’s transcendence and immortality; the soul-as-harmony position correctly recognizes the soul’s inseparability from and intimate union with the body; the complete truth (soul as substantial form) explains why each position has this partial truth

Connections to Key Concepts #

To Change and Becoming #

• Prime matter is the necessary subject for understanding substantial change
• Without prime matter, all change would be accidental, contradicting our experience of things coming into being and ceasing to exist

To the Soul #

• Understanding prime matter prepares for understanding the soul as substantial form
• The soul, like the substantial form in general, actualizes prime matter into a living being
• The soul’s relationship to the body mirrors the relationship of form to matter in general

To Knowledge and Analogy #

• Prime matter exemplifies how reason can know what cannot be sensed or imagined
• The proportion (as clay is to shapes, so prime matter is to substances) shows the method of analogical knowing
• This demonstrates that the highest understanding transcends mere imagination