ERC Postdoc Research Project

ERC TRANSFORM: The Late Scholastic Transformation of Hylomorphism. Philosophical Discussions of Form and Matter in Context, 1400-1600, Russell Friedman (KU Leuven).

Sub Programme Area: ERC-2024- AdG

Project Reference: 101201130

https://research.kuleuven.be/EU/p/he/p1/erc/transform 

16th-Century Hylomorphism and Causation on the Iberian Peninsula 

In my ERC postdoctoral research project, I focus on three closely related key aspects of hylomorphism between 1400 and 1600.

(1) The conceptualization of the prime matter-form relation. 

This includes answering the following specific research questions (RQs):

(RQ1) Is matter conceived of as purely passive or is it a determinable? How does either conceptualization (or a different one) bear on its status as an existing thing?

(RQ2) What is prime matter’s ontological and modal status? That is, even if prime matter is naturally dependent on form, could prime matter in principle exist without form or not? Is this logically conceivable? 

(RQ3) Does form directly reside in prime matter (Aquinas’ position) or does form inform quantified matter (Scotus’ position)? Which position do later authors endorse?

(RQ4) How many forms are there, specifically, in living beings? One: the (respective) soul (Aquinas), two: the respective soul and the forma corporeitatis (Scotus), or three: the rational soul, the sensitive soul, and the forma corporeitatis (Ockham, in the case of human beings).

(RQ5) What is the relation between the substantial form and accidental forms and how do these inhere in matter?

(2) Aristotelian accounts of causation. 

Following the divide between substantial and accidental forms, Aristotelian authors distinguish substantial (per se) and accidental (per accidens) causes. The following research questions emerge:

(RQ6) What is the relation between substantial form and accidental form with respect to causation?

(RQ7) What role do matter and substantial and accidental form play in natural causation?

(RQ8) What is the relation between per se and per accidens causes on the one hand and the Aristotelian four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final cause)? Clearly, these are connected. For Aristotelian authors, causation is grounded in ontology. This already follows to some extent from the axiom operari sequitur esse. In reconstructions of Aristotelian philosophy, however, ontology and causation are often treated side by side rather than in an interconnected fashion. In so doing, we lose sight of the bigger, more complex picture.

(3) theories of biological life in Aristotelian authors focusing on the following questions:

(RQ9) How many forms are thought to be necessary to account for organic function?

(RQ10) What explanatory role do matter and form(s) play in accounting for the life-function?

Authors

I focus on Iberian authors and their works listed below. Their works were not only highly influential, but they were also written in close temporal proximity and in a very similar intellectual and historical context. What's more directly engage in debate with one another. 

o   Domingo de Soto, Commentarium in VIII libros physicorum. Valencia, 1545.

o   Francisco Toletus, Commentaria de physica auscultatione. Venice, 1573.

o   Bento Perera, De communibus omnium rerum naturalium principiis et affectionibus libri quindecim. Rome, 1576.

o   Pedro da Fonseca, Commentariorum in Libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis. Rome, 1577.

o   Conimbricenses, Commentarii Collegii Conimbricenses Societatis Jesu in octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis Stagyritæ. Coimbra, 1591