Matter and Body

Aristotle asserts that the Soul is the Form of the Body.  It thus follows that the Body is the Matter of the Soul.  Hence, because Matter-Form are in a Passive-Active relation according to Aristotle, so, too, are Body and Soul.  Aristotle's concept of that relation is not the only prominent one that conceives that relation as such; in Genesis 2, absent the breath of the deity, a human is mere dust.  So it is not surprising that when Medieval Theology and Modern Philosophy unite in Descartes' theory, Corporeality is conceived as Soulless, and remains as such until Spinoza unites Deity and Nature.  But because of the marginality of his doctrine, it is not until another century or two that Body is conceived to be Active in its own right, i. e. with the rise to prominence of sub-Atomic Chemistry and Biology.