hylomorphism: a standalone construct

Hylomorphism is the doctrine, set out by Aristotle in his Physics and Metaphysics (ca. 350 BCE), that every ordinary substance is a compound of two inseparable principles: matter (Greek hyle), the stuff a thing is made of, and form (Greek morphe), the structure or organizing principle that makes that stuff a particular kind of thing, so that a bronze statue is bronze (matter) shaped into a figure (form). Aristotle used the pairing to explain change, arguing that when a thing comes to be, one and the same matter takes on a new form, which let him treat growth, generation, and artifice within a single scheme. The word hylomorphism itself is a later coinage that joins the two Greek roots and was not used by Aristotle. In contemporary analytic metaphysics the view was revived as an account of parts and wholes and of what unifies an object, notably by Kit Fine (1999), who argued that a whole is its parts taken together with a formal principle of arrangement, and by Kathrin Koslicki (2008), who built a structured account of material objects in which form is itself a proper part. What makes hylomorphism a landmark is its breadth: one form-and-matter analysis is carried across physics, biology, artifacts, and, in some versions, the relation of soul to body, giving a single vocabulary for how organized wholes differ from the material they are composed of.[1][2][3]

Unit

A metaphysical doctrine about the composition of substances, applied to any concrete individual as a compound of matter and form

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Identified in a text or theory by whether it analyzes concrete individuals into matter and form and treats form as the principle that unifies and identifies the whole