Philosophy 3006F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Four Causes, Origin Myth
8 Oct 2018
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Example: the wood in a bed. (if you plant a bed, it might grow into a tree, not into another bed. : others say form: the wood isn"t the nature of the bed, only potentially so. The same holds for the matter of flesh or bone. The shape or form is nature, it belongs to a thing and is not separable, except in an account: aristotle: form is more truly nature than matter. Not what it"s growing from, but what it"s growing into. All these can be described or modified in various ways: general/specific; coincidental; actual/potential (see summary at 195b12-16). The student of nature must study all the causes. But some things are super-natural (beyond nature): things that initiate motion without being in motion. (preview of aristotle"s prime mover or god. ) To some extent, form is like this, or the final cause. X is what it is to be y (what the essence is)
