44. Matter, Form, and the Principle of Change

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Structure of Book 8 #

Book 8 investigates the composition of material substances, proceeding through five readings:

• Readings 1-2: Establish that material substances comprise both matter and form
• Reading 3: Consider form as substance and act
• Reading 4: Consider matter
• Reading 5: Consider the composition of the two

This structure parallels the treatment of nouns and verbs in the Peri Hermeneias, which discusses them separately before their combination in statements.

Preliminary Terminology: Cause, Beginning, Element #

These terms are not synonyms. In order of generality:

• Beginning (ἀρχή): Most general; what something proceeds from
• Cause (αἰτία): More specific; that which produces change
• Element (στοιχεῖον): Most particular; first things in the order of material cause

Crucial distinction for theology: The Father may be called a “beginning” of the Son (the Son proceeds from the Father), but not properly called a “cause,” as causality implies a different nature in producer and effect.

The Problem of Change and Parmenides’ Challenge #

The apparent contradiction: When we observe change (e.g., day becoming night, the hard becoming soft), we seem to assert that one contrary becomes another. But this violates the principle of non-contradiction: day cannot be night; hardness cannot be softness.

Two apparent positions:

1. Heraclitus: Change is real; therefore contradiction must be possible
2. Parmenides: Contradiction is impossible; therefore change is illusory

Aristotle’s resolution: Change does not occur in the contraries themselves. Rather, there is an underlying subject that persists while contraries alternate in it.

Accidental Change: The Structure of Understanding #

In accidental changes (e.g., health → sickness, hard → soft):

1. The contraries (health/sickness) cannot become each other
2. There must be an underlying subject (the body) that is not identical to either contrary
3. The subject is able to be either contrary but not both simultaneously
4. When actually one, the subject remains able to be the other
5. When the subject becomes informed by the other contrary, it loses the first

The analogical structure: We speak of “the healthy becoming sick” not because health becomes sickness, but because to-be-healthy is something that happens to what becomes sick. This is speaking per accidens (by accident), not per se (through itself).

Substantial Change and Prime Matter #

The problem: In substantial change (man → lion), both terms are substances, not accidents. What is the underlying subject?

Aristotle’s answer: Prime matter (prima materia), which is:

• Not an actual substance, but substance only in ability/potentiality (ἐν δυνάμει)
• The ultimate subject of substantial change
• Pure potentiality; completely indeterminate
• Never existing in isolation, always informed by some form

Knowledge of prime matter: Prime matter cannot be directly sensed or perceived. We know it through proportion (ἀναλογία):

Prime matter is to man and lion as clay is to sphere and cube

The likeness consists in this: Just as clay can be sphere or cube but not both simultaneously, and when actually one remains able to be the other (but ceases being the former when it becomes the latter), so prime matter can be man or lion but not both simultaneously. When actually man, it remains able to be lion; if it becomes lion, it ceases to be man.

Modern physics confirmation: Heisenberg compares the complete mutability revealed in high-energy experiments to Aristotle’s concept of prime matter. The experiments show no permanent form of matter; therefore, the underlying matter must be substance only in ability, never isolated by itself.

Substantial Form #

Definition: That by which prime matter becomes an actual substance; what makes a thing to be what it is essentially.

Characteristics:

• Comes to a subject that is pure potentiality (prime matter)
• Actualizes prime matter; actuality is found in the form, not the subject
• Known through proportion (analogously to accidental form, but fundamentally different)
• By substantial form, something is simply (without qualification); by accidental form, something is only in a qualified way

Contrast with accidental form:

• Accidental form comes to an actual substance
• Accidental form determines how something is modified (quality, quantity, etc.)
• Losing accidental form (e.g., forgetting geometry) does not destroy being
• Losing substantial form (e.g., death) destroys the substance itself

The Authority and Superiority of Form #

In the appropriation of causes to the four kinds:

• Form is appropriated to formal cause
• End is appropriated to final cause
• Beginning is appropriated to efficient cause (mover/maker)
• Matter is appropriated to material cause

Form and end are the most important causes “for the wise man.” Form is the cause of being; it is the cause of all other causes. Thus, form is most appropriate to the first cause.

Key Arguments #

The Argument from Change #

1. Change is real and immediately observable (strikes the senses most of all)
2. Change involves transition between contraries
3. Contraries cannot become each other (health cannot become sickness; hardness cannot become softness)
4. Therefore, there must be an underlying subject that persists through change
5. In accidental change, this subject is an actual substance (body, butter, etc.)
6. In substantial change, this subject must be pure potentiality (prime matter)
7. What actualizes prime matter is substantial form
8. Thus: substance = matter + form, united in composite

The Argument from the Method of Proportion #

1. Prime matter cannot be directly perceived or imagined
2. But we can understand it by proportion to something we do understand
3. Clay is to sphere/cube as prime matter is to man/lion
4. The proportion holds in this respect: both subjects can inform contrary actualities in succession
5. Therefore, by understanding the analogy, we come to knowledge of prime matter

Important Definitions #

Substance (οὐσία, essentia) #

In the metaphysical sense being discussed: That which exists in itself; the primary subject of change. Material substances have both matter and form, but the substance itself (the composite) is what primarily exists.

Prime Matter (prima materia) #

Pure potentiality; the ultimate underlying subject of substantial change. Not an actual substance but substance only in ability. Knowable only through proportion.

Substantial Form #

That which actualizes prime matter and makes it to be a particular kind of substance. By substantial form, a thing is simply and without qualification.

Accidental Form #

That which determines an actual substance in some qualified way (quality, quantity, relation, position, time, etc.). The substance remains the same while accidental forms change.

Proportion (ἀναλογία, proportio) #

A likeness of ratio; the method by which we come to understand what cannot be directly perceived. In a proportion, multiple differences may exist, but one essential similarity in ratio grounds the comparison.

Examples & Illustrations #

The Healthy and the Sick #

When the body becomes sick, does health itself become sickness? No—health (good condition) could never be sickness (bad condition). Rather, the body (the underlying subject) transitions from being healthy to being sick. The body is able to be both but not simultaneously.

Hardness and Softness in Butter #

Butter can be hard or soft. Hardness does not become softness. Rather, the butter itself remains the same subject while informed by different contrary qualities. When actually hard, it remains able to be soft; when it becomes soft, it ceases to be hard.

Shape and Clay #

Clay can be shaped as a sphere, cube, or pyramid. The clay itself does not become sphere by being clay. The clay is able to be sphere, cube, or pyramid, but not all simultaneously. This illustrates how prime matter stands to substantial forms (man, lion, etc.).

The Pianist and the Plumber #

If a plumber who is also a pianist repairs your plumbing, he does so as a plumber, not as a pianist. Being a pianist is accidental to the plumber’s nature and skill. This illustrates how accidental properties do not define what something is.

Day and Night #

Heraclitus said that those who think day is one thing and night another don’t understand change. The point: if day and night were wholly distinct, there would be no change from one to the other. Aristotle shows that change requires both contraries and an underlying subject.

Notable Quotes #

“The point, for example, is the beginning of a line. Or the edge of the desk is the beginning of the desk or the table. But that’s not a cause of the table or the line.” (Illustrating the distinction between beginning and cause; important for understanding Trinity)

“By substantial form, something is simply without qualification. By accidental form, it only is in some qualified way.” (The fundamental distinction between two kinds of actualization)

“The first matter is knowable by a proportion. And proportion, now in a Nuclear sense, huh? A likeness of ratio.” (Explaining how we know what is in principle unknowable by itself)

Questions Addressed #

How is change possible without violating the principle of non-contradiction? #

Change does not require that one contrary become another contrary. Rather, an underlying subject becomes informed by different contraries in succession. The contraries do not become each other; they are successive states of the same subject.

How do we know prime matter exists if we cannot perceive it? #

Through the fact of substantial change itself. We infer prime matter as the necessary underlying subject, knowable not directly but through proportion to how clay underlies different shapes. Prime matter is to substances what clay is to geometric shapes.

Why does Aristotle emphasize that form, not matter, is more properly substance? #

Because form is what actualizes prime matter and makes it to be what it is. Matter alone is only potentiality. In the order of being, form is primary; form is the cause of being itself.