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Full Idea
Thus in Aristotle we may think of an object's formal components as a sort of recipe for how to build wholes of that particular kind.
Gist of Idea
The 'form' is the recipe for building wholes of a particular kind
Source
report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Kathrin Koslicki - The Structure of Objects 7.2.5
Book Ref
Koslicki,Kathrin: 'The Structure of Objects' [OUP 2008], p.172
A Reaction
In the elusive business of pinning down what Aristotle means by the crucial idea of 'form', this analogy strikes me as being quite illuminating. It would fit DNA in living things, and the design of an artifact.
| 16109 | Things are a unity because there is no clash between potential matter and actual shape/form [Aristotle] |
| 16088 | Aristotle's solution to the problem of unity is that form is an active cause or potentiality or nature [Aristotle, by Gill,ML] |
| 16104 | Unity of the form is just unity of the definition [Aristotle] |
| 13277 | The 'form' is the recipe for building wholes of a particular kind [Aristotle, by Koslicki] |
| 16766 | One thing needs a single thing to unite it; if there were two forms, something must unite them [Aquinas] |
| 16765 | Humans only have a single substantial form, which contains the others and acts for them [Aquinas] |
| 16614 | Matter and form give true unity; subject and accident is just unity 'per accidens' [Duns Scotus] |
| 16780 | Partial forms of leaf and fruit are united in the whole form of the tree [Suárez] |
| 16758 | The best support for substantial forms is the co-ordinated unity of a natural being [Suárez] |
| 12700 | Form or soul gives unity and duration; matter gives multiplicity and change [Leibniz] |
| 16748 | Aquinas says a substance has one form; Scotists say it has many forms [Pasnau] |