Hylomorphism: Aristotle’s snub nose, Descartes’s wax, Kant’s plate and dog, Husserl’s brown bottle of bier.
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This seemingly simple question, "What is hylomorphism?", is not so straightforward to answer. We shall attempt to address this question by presenting and interpreting "On The History of Hylomorphism". We shall, therefore, examine closely the link between matter and form, body and soul, primarily in Aristotle's work. We then move on to Descartes, who goes to the extreme of radically separating soul (form) from body (matter). I shall read David Charles's detailed and insightful introduction, as well as Lilli Alanen's chapter on Descartes. We shall consider Descartes' perception of a burning wax candle. Subsequently, I shall venture a glimpse into the future of the narrative. We shall examine Kant's plate circularity and geometric circles in the "Doctrine of Schematism" (resembling David Charles's Sigma-Structure) and attempt to engage with the phenomenological stance, analysing Husserl's "brown bottle of beer", where the morphē-hylē relationship undergoes a transformation in his analyses of time consciousness.
Source: Revista Filosófica de Coimbra
Author: António Castro Caeiro
Institution: Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408809125