According to Aristotle, nature is an internal principle of motion. No production thing has within itself the principle of its own production. In some things (for instance, a house or any other product of handicraft) the principle comes from outside, and it is withing other things. In other things (those that might turn out to be coincidental causes for themselves) the principle is withing them, but not in their own right. For instance, someone who is a doctor might cause himself to be healthy. It is coincidental that the same person is a doctor and is being healed. There is a non-coincidental connection between a plant’s need for water and its having roots. All things are substances. A substance is a subject and a nature is invariably in a subject. Things that have a nature include the principle, substance (subject) and whatever belongs to them in their own right.

Nature is the shape

Aristotle states that nature is the shape. He discloses 3 arguments.

(1) The nature is the shape, that is the form in accordance with the account. For just as we speak of craftsmanship in what is in accordance with craft, so also we speak of nature in what is in accordance with nature. If something were only potentially a bed and still lacked the form of a bed, we would not yet speak of craftsmanship or of a product in accordance with craft. Similarly, what is only potentially flesh or bone does not have its nature, until it acquires the form in accordance with the account.

(2) Some say that the nature of the bed is not the shape but the wood (matter), because if it were to sprout the result would be wood, not a bed. If this show that the wood is the nature, then the shape is also the nature, since a man comes to be from a man.

(3) Nature is a road toward nature. It is not like medical treatment, which is a road not toward medical science, but toward health. For medical treatment necessarily proceeds from medical science, not toward medical science.

In this case, the form is the nature more than the matter is. Bricks are potentially a house. What is potential is matter. There is a house as a design in the mind of the builder before there is a house in the end. So matter expresses potentiality and stuff. Unlike matter, form expresses actuality and shape. If I say desk I mean both matter and form. There is no matter without form. We need absolutely both. Form takes a greater part of nature, as the shape is determined by the goal. Form has a priority, because it actualizes the matter. Bed: matter – wood, form – bed, goal – sleep well.

Early thinkers considered that the student of nature should study only matter. However, if craft imitates nature, the science of nature must know both types of nature. For instance, the doctor knows health and also disease in which health is realized. Similarly, the house builder knows both the form of the house and that its matter is bricks and wood. Matter is relative, for there is one sort of matter for one form, and another for another. Matter is not which stands alone, there is always a matter of a thing.

Platonists hold that to study nature it is sufficient to look at form as we look at odd digits. Aristotle argues that while digits don’t have an internal motion and their form can be easily derived, natural bodies possess motion as snub nose does. It is not just a curved object and to study snubness we should pay attention to both form of the nose and its subject (matter). Thus, to study nature, we should investigate both form and matter and can never separate one from another.

Bibliography:

  • Aristotle, “Book 5, section 1013a”, Metaphysics, Translated by Hugh Tredennick, Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vols. 17, 18, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1933