Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Hylomorphism and Logic

The Hylomorphic principle--Every entity is the Form of some Matter--i. e. is the Unity of a Multiplicity, entails the possibility that a Form can itself be part of the Matter of another Form, and that any Matter can be the Form of some other Matter.  However, the principle is indeterminate as to whether or not there is either an ultimate Form or ultimate Matter.  So, from the evidence of the naked eye, Aristotle might be justified in positing the existence of limits in both cases, whereas a modern Cosmologist, with the benefit of the telescope and the microscope, might be justified in positing infinitude in both directions.  In any case, the fundamental axioms of Hylomorphic Logic are: 1. some A are B; some B are C; therefore, some A are C and 2. all C are B; all B are A; therefore, all C are A, with B part of the Matter of A, and C part of the Matter of B.  Seemingly isomorphic, the inverse directions of the two axioms suffice to preclude the reduction of one to the other, which would implicitly privilege either Form or Matter, i. e. one of the starting points, contrary to the equiprimordiality of the Hylomorphic principle.

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