Full Idea
The problem of unity disappears if our account is adopted. We allow a matter component and a shape/form component, one existing potentially the other in actuality. …The account is of a unity because one component is material, the other shape/form.
Gist of Idea
Things are a unity because there is no clash between potential matter and actual shape/form
Source
Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1045a24)
Book Reference
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.249
A Reaction
It sounds as though the solution is that matter is material and form is abstract, so there is no rivalry. Elsewhere form seems more like a mechanism or a set of powers.
Related Idea
Idea 16108 If men exist by participating in two forms (Animal and Biped), they are plural, not unities [Aristotle]