Matter and Form
In Aristotle's writings, matter (hyle) is a relative term, for example, clay might be the matter of some brick, which in turn, become the proximate matter of a house. Aristotle defines X's matter as "that out of which" X is made. For example, letters are the matter of syllables.
Change is analyzed as a material transformation: matter is what undergoes a change of form. For example, consider a lump of bronze that's shaped into a statue. Bronze is the matter and the forms (literally, shapes) are lump and statue.
According to Aristotle's theory of perception, we perceive an object by copying its form with our sense organs. Thus, forms include complex qualia like colors, textures and flavors, not just shapes.
Read more about this topic: Hylomorphism
Famous quotes containing the words matter and/or form:
“I have heard arguments ... in favor of pardoning D. M. Bennett, convicted of sending obscene matter through the mails, viz., a pamphlet [by Ezra Hervey Heywood] of a polemical character in favor of free love. While I am satisfied that Bennett ought not to have been convicted, I am not satisfied that I ought to undertake to correct the mistakes of the courts—constantly persisted in—by the exercise of the pardoning power.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“After all, crime is only a lefthanded form of human endeavor.”
—John Huston (1906–1987)