Article ID: CBB795727641

Generation and the Unity of Form in Aristotle (2006)

unapi

This essay describes and then offers a solution to a fundamental problem in Aristotle's metaphysics, namely, how the form of a natural substance comes to exist without going through the process of coming-to-be along with the coming-to-be of the substance.1 The problem arises because Aristotle proposes a developmental account of how living substances take on structure; certain parts of the animal are present and are necessary for the coming-to-be of other parts. However, at the same time, Aristotle also insists that the form of the animal, which defines the structure of the animal, is a unity that cannot be reduced to its parts. So, while the substance comes-to-be through a gradual process of generation, the form of the substance cannot come-to-be; the form is never only partially present in the developing substance. I believe that Aristotle held that the form of a generated substance begins to exist without going through any process of generation because it is the matter that goes through the stages of articulation. The form begins to exist only when this material preparation is completed. What is needed, then, in Aristotle's model of generation, is a matter that can bear the metaphysical burden of enabling parts in a developing substance. I claim that Aristotle's principle of matter is a principle of possible complexity, and that this is the key to understanding how an actuality can be the result of the articulation of the substratum without the form itself admitting of articulation. This model of generation is illustrated in Aristotle's Generation of Animals.

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Authors & Contributors
Michael James Griffin
Mahlan, John Robert
Coren, Daniel
Weiner, Sebastian F.
O'Connor, Scott
Marmodoro, Anna
Concepts
Metaphysics
Form (philosophy)
Philosophy of science
Matter theory
Philosophy
Biogenesis; origin of life; spontaneous generation
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
16th century
Places
Greece
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