HYLOMORPHISM RECONDITIONED1

Abstract

Hylomorphism is traditionally understood as the thesis that every material substance is a structured entity with matter and form as its primary constituents. Informal explanations of the italicized terms commonly encourage the thought that matter is the (quantity, or lump of) stuff out of which something is made whereas a form is a kind-property, like humanity or felinity. It is furthermore common to characterize forms as abstracta — either immanent universals or particular tropes. For Aristotle and Aquinas, the two pillars of the hylomorphic tradition, the matter of a substance of kind K is something in the substance that, taken on its own, is merely potentially a K. If the substance came into existence at some time, then its matter is whatever was potentially a K and ultimately came to be a K. The form is that thing in the substance that actualizes the matter’s potential to be a K. Obviously enough, these more technical characterizations do not strictly identify matter with stuff and form with kind property, but it is easy enough to see where those identifications come from.