These were the Aristotelian-Avicennan theory of form and matter (surah wa maddah =
hylomorphism) of the great majority of the falasifah, (1) and the kalam theory of atoms and accidents (jawahir wa a'rad = atomism) of the great majority of the Mu'tazilite and Ash'arite-Maturidite mutakallimun.
(4) The origins of exemplarity derive from the classical idea of universal
hylomorphism. Plato proposed a theory of exemplar or archetypal ideas.
The role of neural development in eudaimonia is considered and the benefits of a Thomistic
hylomorphism founded on participation in esse are summarized.
Hence, it is in the course of this first book of the Physics that Avicenna introduces notions such as common things (al-umur al-'amma) and nature (tabi a), his take on
hylomorphism and the four causes, and the relation of causality to luck and chance--core concepts of his Metaphysics whose basic analysis, however, is given here.
Roughly speaking, using a framework of
hylomorphism, congregational studies describes the material object, while theology or ecclesiology specifies the formal dimension of the church.
Indeed, there is a perfectly general worry about the philosophical arbitrariness of distinguishing artefacts from substances which will inevitably emerge even within the context of
hylomorphism: surely, one may suppose, any defensible criteria for substantiality satisfied by organisms will again and equally be satisfied by artefacts.
Skirry covers the academic debate and the roots of the confusion, Cartesian attributes and their conceptual distinction, Cartesian bodies as they relate to material forms and the human body, the substantial union argument, Cartesian
hylomorphism, and Descartes's dissolution (rather than resolution) of the mind-body problem.
He is noted by Dhanani as the first mutakallim to discuss space and time in a comprehensive manner, (57) and probably the first also to undertake a comparative study of atomism and
hylomorphism of any comprehensive scope and intensity of treatment.
(58) Certainly, he reaffirms immediately the Aristotelian
hylomorphism according to which Socrates is composed of soul and body.
Smaller missteps abound: when explaining Aristotle's conception of nature and his
hylomorphism, why not fall back on the clear and concise Physics B--nature is form rather than matter, 2.1.193b6-7--rather than engage in a hazy and confusing detour regarding categorical theory and the limits of science (8)?
After providing a more thorough and compelling account of the shortcomings of non-reductive materialist metaphysics, I present Aristotelian
hylomorphism as a way to understand the relationship between the matter of a living thing (or person) and the form or unifying principle which bestows ontological status upon it.
In his natural philosophy, Ibn Sina follows to a large extent Aristotle, as far as such basic theses such as
hylomorphism and potentiality and actuality are concerned, although his metaphysics is different from that of the Stagirite as far as the meaning of being and the basic ontological question of necessity and contingency is concerned.