more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
What it is to be shapeless is different from what it is to be bronze. …An underlying nature is related to substance as, in general, matter (which is to say, something shapeless), before it gains shape, is to something with shape.
Gist of Idea
A nature is related to a substance as shapeless matter is to something which has a shape
Source
Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 190b39-)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.27
A Reaction
This is an interesting take on the modern problem that the bronze seems to be a separate 'object' from the statue. If bronze is amorphous stuff, it has no shape, presumably because it has no significant shape.