Hylemorphism as a Generalized Research Programme

Abstract

Hylemorphism holds that material substances are composites of prime matter and substantial form: matter as pure potentiality, form as the actualizing and specifying principle. After early modern attacks, recent work has revived hylemorphism chiefly as a theory of substance. This paper extends the project: hylemorphism can function as a general research programme for sublunary phenomena beyond substance ontology. I sketch, analogically, how form/matter analysis illuminates: (i) language, via a unified linguistic form rather than separate syntactic and semantic forms; (ii) ethics, treating bodily motion as matter and volitional states as form; and (iii) politics, understanding the polis as constitutionally informed matter. I conclude by rejecting attempts to reduce form to structure.