48. Matter, Form, and Their Union in Natural Substances

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Remote vs. Proximate Matter #

• Although all things may come from the same first matter remotely, each thing has its own proximate matter appropriate to it
• Example: A sentence is made of words (proximate matter) which are made of letters (remote matter)
• The proximate matter is what is immediately relevant to the particular substance coming to be
• One can speak of multiple matters “in a certain order, when one is the matter of the other”

The Bidirectional Use of “From” #

• The word “from” can be used in both directions when describing generation:
  • Forward: A brick wall comes to be from bricks (matter produces composite)
  • Reverse: Bricks come to be from a brick wall when it is broken down (composite dissolves back to elements)
• Similarly: Hydrogen and oxygen generate water; water dissolves into hydrogen and oxygen
• The word “from” is also used of the mover or maker, not just matter
• Thomas notes that “from him” in St. Paul (“from him and through him and in him”) applies to the Father as maker, not as matter

Matter in Relation to Other Causes #

• Different things can come to be from the same matter because of the mover or maker imposing different forms
• Example: A wooden chest and wooden bed are made from the same wood; their difference comes from the craftsman’s intention
• However, not any matter can receive any form
  • A saw cannot be made from wool or paper
  • The proximate matter must be appropriate to what is being made
• If the same form can be made from different matters, the art (form in the mind of the maker) remains constant
• If both matter and mover were different, what comes to be would also be different

The Four Causes and Their Necessity #

• Early Greek natural philosophers sought only one cause (matter), attempting to explain everything through accidental collisions of matter
• Aristotle insists that all four causes must be stated where they apply: matter, form, mover, and end
• The word “cause” is used equivocally of different things:
  • The carpenter (efficient cause)
  • The wood (material cause)
  • The shape of the chair (formal cause)
  • The purpose of sitting (final cause)
• All are rightly called “causes” but not in the same sense; this is why they are distinct kinds
• One should state “all the causes it happened to be” since causes are said in many ways

Application to Man #

• Matter: The menstrual fluid (the nourishing blood)
• Mover: The seed
• Form: The “what was to be” (the essential form)
• End: The end or purpose of man; sometimes the form and end are the same, though an end can be beyond what one is
• In natural substances, one must know the proximate causes, not merely remote ones
• The proximate matter of man is flesh, blood, and bones—not earth, air, fire, and water

Heavenly Bodies and Their Matter #

• Aristotle thought the sun, moon, and stars do not undergo generation and corruption (coming to be and ceasing to be)
• They seem to exist eternally, appearing unchanging within human lifespans
• They do undergo local motion (change of place)
• They may have a different kind of matter: matter subject to motion but not to quality or substance change
• Modern scientific discovery confirms the sun’s incredible energy output and sustained power; this seems inconsistent with ordinary fire
• The sun is not fire in an ordinary sense, as ordinary fires burn out within reasonable timeframes

Matter and Accidents #

• Accidents (like eclipse) do not have matter in the same way substances do
• The subject of an accident is a substance (e.g., the moon undergoes eclipse)
• Unlike matter in the genus of substance (which has no actuality by itself), a substance is already an actual being
• The distinction between substance-accident composition and matter-form composition is important

Generation and Corruption of Forms #

• Forms as such do not come to be or cease to be—only composites of matter and form do
• When butter is placed in a refrigerator, hard butter comes to be; but hardness as such does not come to be
• One should not say “hardness comes to be” because the form itself is not generated; rather, hard butter is generated
• If forms were made from matter, an infinite regress would follow:
  • Two different forms made from the same matter would need a form distinguishing them (form²)
  • Two different instances of form² would need another form (form³)
  • This regress is infinite
• Forms can be said to come to be only accidentally or by happening (κατὰ συμβεβηκός), through something else coming to be

Consequence for Separated Forms (Angels) #

• If something is form only with no matter, it cannot come to be or cease to be even accidentally
• Separated substances (angels) are therefore eternal once created; they cannot cease to be
• Plato glimpsed something of this truth in his theory of eternal forms, though he did not grasp the nature of separated substances correctly
• This explains why angels are ingenible and incorruptible

Change Between Contraries #

• Not all things that are and are not undergo generation and corruption
• Examples: points, lines, and forms do not come to be or cease to be as such
• When a person changes from taller to shorter (as a son grows), does the person undergo change? Not really—something else changes while the person remains
• Socrates’ Argument from the Phaedo:
  • Change always occurs between contraries (hard ↔ soft, light ↔ dark, living ↔ dead)
  • If change only occurred in one direction, one contrary would eventually disappear from the world
  • Since both contraries persist, change must occur in both directions
  • Example: Things go from light to dark all the time; if never from dark to light, the world would be all dark
  • Application to souls: Living things die (living → dead); if the reverse never occurred, everything would be dead now
  • Therefore, souls must survive death and be rejoined to bodies
• Aristotle’s Distinction: Not all changes are straightforwardly reversible
  • Wine becomes vinegar through corruption (a degradation), but vinegar cannot directly become wine
  • To reverse such corruption, one must break it down to first matter and begin again
  • Example: A dishcloth getting wet and drying is reversible; but wine becoming vinegar is not directly reversible

The Problem of Matter’s Potentiality #

• There is a question about how matter relates to contrary forms:
  • Can a body be equally in potentiality to both health and sickness? Seemingly yes.
  • Is water equally in potentiality to be wine or vinegar? Not simply—wine must come first; vinegar comes through corruption of wine.
  • Can a body be equally in potentiality to be alive and dead? Not simply—it must be alive first, then corruption brings death.
• This suggests a hierarchical ordering in what can come from what
• Why is wine not the matter of vinegar (as vinegar comes from wine through corruption)? Because wine is not corrupted into matter; rather, the corruption of wine as such occurs
• Not all reversals are possible; some require return to first matter

The Limit of Induction #

• Socrates uses induction to show that change occurs between all contraries: hard→soft, soft→hard, wet→dry, dry→wet, hot→cold, cold→hot
• From this pattern, he generalizes about living and dead as contraries
• However, some students are bothered by applying this universally
• Berquist defends it through everyday examples: If people only leave cars but never enter them, cars would all be empty; since they remain occupied, entering must occur even if unseen

Key Arguments #

The Regress Argument Against Forms Being Made from Matter #

1. Suppose form were made from matter (as a material part is made from material)
2. The same matter could produce many different forms
3. What would distinguish form₁ from form₂ if both are made from the same matter?
4. Answer: A form of the form (form²) would need to distinguish them
5. But what distinguishes two instances of form²? Another form (form³)
6. This regresses infinitely
7. Conclusion: Forms cannot be made from matter; form must be the actuality of matter’s potential, not a material product

The Argument from Directional Change #

1. All change occurs between contraries
2. If change only occurs in one direction (e.g., hot→cold, never cold→hot), one contrary would disappear
3. Both contraries persist in the world
4. Therefore, change must be capable of occurring in both directions
5. Application: Living things die; if death were irreversible, everything would be dead
6. Therefore, there must be a principle (the soul) that can be reunited with the body

Why Not All Matter Can Receive All Forms #

1. Different things require different appropriate materials
2. A saw cannot be made from wool or paper—only from hard material like metal
3. Therefore: The mover can only impose form on appropriate matter
4. Corollary: When different forms can be realized in different materials (wooden chair, metal chair), the art (form in mind) is the same, even though the matter differs

Important Definitions #

Matter (ὕλη) #

• Remote matter: The ultimate material substrate; all things may trace back to this
• Proximate matter: The immediate material appropriate to a particular substance; what is directly relevant to a thing’s generation
• Matter is pure potentiality (δύναμις) without form—it has no actuality by itself

Form (μορφή) #

• The actuality (ἐνέργεια) that makes matter to be what it is
• Forms as such do not come to be or cease to be; only composites do
• The principle of unity in a composite substance
• In separated substances (angels), the entire substance is form

Generation (γένεσις) and Corruption (φθορά) #

• Proper generation: The coming to be of a composite of matter and form
• Accidental generation (κατὰ συμβεβηκός): The coming to be of a form through something else coming to be; forms “come to be” only in this accidental sense
• Corruption: The ceasing to be of a composite

The Four Causes (τέσσαρα αἴτια) #

• Material cause (αἴτιον ὕλης): That from which something is made (matter)
• Formal cause (αἴτιον εἴδους): The form or essence that defines what the thing is
• Efficient cause (αἴτιον κινοῦν): The mover or maker; what brings the thing into being
• Final cause (αἴτιον οὗ ἕνεκα): The end, purpose, or that for the sake of which a thing is made
• These are four different meanings of the word “cause” (αἴτιον), not four instances of the same thing

Examples & Illustrations #

Sentences and Words #

• A sentence is made from words (proximate matter) and words are made from letters (remote matter)
• Letters are like the remote matter; words are the proximate matter
• This illustrates the hierarchy of matter

Wooden Furniture #

• A wooden chest and a wooden bed are both made from the same wood
• Yet they are different things because the craftsman imposes different forms
• If both the matter and the mover were different, the resulting products would also differ
• But since the art (form in mind) of the carpenter can be the same, both can be made from wood

The Saw Cannot Be Made from Every Material #

• A saw requires hard material like metal
• It cannot be made from wool or paper
• This shows that appropriate matter is necessary; not any mover can make any form in any matter

Butter Changing Temperature #

• Soft butter placed in a refrigerator becomes hard
• One should not say “hardness comes to be”
• Rather: Hard butter comes to be; the form (hardness) actualizes the butter’s potential
• Hardness as such does not come to be—it appears through the generation of the composite

Height Comparison #

• I am taller than my son; later he grows and becomes taller than me
• There is a change from my being taller to my being shorter
• But does I change as such? No—something else changes (my son’s height)
• Similarly, forms do not change; composites do

Light and Dark (Socratic Example) #

• Each day transitions from light to dark; yet both light and dark persist
• This is because change occurs in both directions
• If change only went light→dark, the world would be completely dark
• Since both persist, the reverse change must occur

Living and Dead (Socratic Example) #

• Living things die; yet both living and dead exist
• If change only went living→dead, everything would be dead
• Therefore, there must be change from dead back to living (or a principle allowing reunion)
• This is why the soul must survive bodily death

Wine and Vinegar #

• Wine becomes vinegar through corruption
• But vinegar cannot directly become wine
• This is unlike reversible changes (wet↔dry, hard↔soft)
• To reverse corruption, one must break the vinegar down to first matter and begin again
• Not all contraries can change into one another directly

Dishcloth Getting Wet and Dry #

• A dishcloth gets wet during the day and dries out
• The next day it gets wet again
• This is a reversible change between contraries
• It is unlike wine→vinegar (a one-way corruption)

The Eclipse #

• The moon undergoes eclipse (an accident) when the earth comes between the sun and moon
• Matter: There is no material cause for the eclipse as such
• Mover: The earth causes the eclipse by blocking light
• End: There is probably no end or purpose to the eclipse
• This shows that not all causes apply to all phenomena

Parking Lot Analogy #

• If you see people leaving cars all day but never entering cars, all cars would eventually be empty
• Since cars remain occupied, people must be entering them even if you don’t observe it
• This reasoning applies to any process: if only one direction of change occurred, one pole would disappear
• Therefore, change must go both ways (or at least be capable of going both ways)

Modern Philosophy as Corruption of Ancient Philosophy #

• Modern philosophy is to philosophy as vinegar is to wine—a corruption
• As vinegar cannot directly become wine (requiring dissolution and rebuilding), modern philosophy cannot be directly reformed into true philosophy
• One must go back to fundamentals (the pre-Socratics, Aristotle) and rebuild
• One cannot jump directly from modern philosophy back to ancient philosophy

Notable Quotes #

“In the beginning of the fourth reading, he’s going to point out that although there might be one matter behind all things, in a remote way, the proximate matter will be different.” — Berquist, on Aristotle’s principle of hierarchical matter

“It’s a little bit like if you say, you know, are sentences made out of words or letters, right? Well, it’s made out of words, but the words are made out of letters, so in some sense you can say the sentence is made out of what? Letters, but letters is like the remote matter, right?” — Berquist, illustrating remote vs. proximate matter

“If you go back, especially to the approximate matter, you can’t make it from just any matter. You’ve got to have one that’s appropriate to it.” — Aristotle (via Berquist), on the necessity of appropriate matter

“If one seeks the cause, one should state all the causes that happen to be.” — Aristotle, on the necessity of the four causes

“If the word cause was said equally of the wood and the shape of the wood and the carpenter and the sitting, you wouldn’t know which one to say first.” — Berquist, explaining why “cause” is equivocal

“If forms were made from matter, you’d be making the form out of what? Matter, right? And therefore, since you can have different forms in the same matter, you’d have to have a form of a form, right? To distinguish one form from another form made out of the same matter.” — Berquist, stating the regress argument

“The forms as such don’t come to be, right? And that does tell us something about forms in the sense of the angels. If they’re just forms, right? And have no matter, then they can’t come to be or cease to be even accidentally, huh? They’re eternal things.” — Berquist, on the eternity of separated substances

“Modern philosophy is to philosophy like, what, vinegar is to wine, or the dead is to the living, right? It’s a corruption of it.” — Berquist, applying Aristotle’s principle to contemporary thought

Questions Addressed #

What is the distinction between remote and proximate matter? #

• Remote matter is the ultimate material substrate that all things trace back to
• Proximate matter is what is immediately appropriate and relevant to a particular substance
• One is the matter of the other in an ordered hierarchy

Why can different things come from the same matter? #

• Because the mover or maker imposes different forms upon the matter
• The art (form in the mind) of the craftsman determines what is produced
• Example: A chest and bed are both made from wood but differ because of the craftsman’s intention

Does form come to be from matter? #

• No. If it did, infinite regress would follow: form² would be needed to distinguish two forms from the same matter, then form³ to distinguish instances of form², etc.
• Instead, form is the actuality of matter’s potential
• Form is what actualizes matter; it is not a material part produced from matter

What unites matter and form into one thing? #

• No external principle is needed
• Form is the actuality of matter’s ability to be shaped/formed
• They are immediately one because one is the act of the other’s potentiality
• This is analogous to asking “what unites the clay to its spherical shape?” — a false question, since the shape is the actuality of the clay’s potential

Do forms come to be and cease to be? #

• Forms as such do not. Only composites of matter and form do
• Forms can be said to come to be only accidentally (κατὰ συμβεβηκός)—when something else (the composite) comes to be
• This is why forms cannot be made from matter, as that would imply they are material products

Why is change sometimes reversible and sometimes not? #

• Reversible changes occur between simple contraries (wet↔dry, hard↔soft, light↔dark)
• Non-reversible changes involve corruption of one thing into another (wine→vinegar)
• Vinegar cannot become wine directly; it must be broken down to first matter and rebuilt
• This hierarchical ordering shows that not all contraries relate to each other symmetrically

Why must the soul survive the body’s death? #

• The Socratic argument from the Phaedo establishes that living and dead are contraries
• If only living→dead change occurred, everything would be dead
• Since both living and dead exist, change must occur in both directions
• For this to happen, something (the soul) must survive death to be reunited with a new body
• The argument is often misunderstood, but it follows logically from the principle that change occurs between contraries

What is the proper way to investigate natural substances? #

• One must identify all four causes where they apply
• One must focus on proximate causes, not remote ones
• Example: The proximate matter of man is flesh, blood, and bones—not earth, air, fire, and water
• One should not reduce causality to a single cause (as early materialists did) but state all causes that are relevant

Why do the heavenly bodies seem eternal? #

• Aristotle observed that the sun, moon, and stars do not appear to undergo generation or corruption
• They only undergo local motion (change of place)
• They may have a different kind of matter—matter subject to motion but not to quality or substance change
• Modern science reveals the sun’s enormous energy output, suggesting it is not ordinary fire but something unique
• Whether heavenly bodies are truly eternal or simply very long-lived remains a question, but their apparent constancy is noteworthy