Three Biased Reminders about Hylomorphism in Early Modern Science and Philosophy

"Hylomorphism" is, literally, "matter-form-ism" and an appropriate label for Aristotle's account of matter-form thinking. This chapter first explores the origin of "hylomorphism" in the early nineteenth-century, further showing that the term did not come to refer to the Peripatetic doctrines of matter and form before the final two decades of the century. Next, it surveys a wide range of seventeenth-century authors, all of whom utilized these terms or their cognates toward various purposes, and the plurality of meanings for "matter" and "form" will quickly become apparent. Finally, the author argues that even as certain aspects of matter and form were discarded, the terms remained central in accounting for change in the natural world. He compares Aristotle's position in Physics I with the seventeenth-century Peripatetic Scipion Dupleix and the Cartesian Jacque Rohault. The chapter contributes to changing the entrenched conceptions about matter and form in Early Modern science and philosophy. Keywords:Aristotle; Dupleix; Early Modern science; hylomorphism; matter-form; philosophy; Physics I; Rohault