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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.