Lesson 6 –
Substantial Form

The evidence of common sense tells us that things of our everyday experience are real and come in many different natural kinds. Whenever we are talking about a particular thing in nature that is real, and belongs to a specific natural kind, and is irreducible to anything else, Aristotle and Aquinas call that particular thing a primary substance.

What all the primary substances have in common, and what makes each of them irreducible to anything else, is their substantial form. Thanks to their substantial forms constituting many primary substances large, medium, and small, it cannot be said that what is really real is just particles and forces and that everything else is reducible to them.

Course Reading

Aquinas, 38-39 | Eleonore Stump

Excerpt from Aquinas by Eleonore Stump:

“The difference between the substantial and the accidental forms of material objects is a function of three things: (1) what the form organizes or configures; (2) what the configuration effects; and (3) what kind of change is produced by the advent of the configuration.

Regarding (1): a substantial form of a material thing configures prime matter.

Regarding (2): for this reason, configuration by a substantial form brings it about that a thing which was not already in existence comes into existence.

Regarding (3): the change produced by the advent of a substantial form is therefore a generation of a thing.”

Course Listening

This is My Body: Explaining Transubstantiation | Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.

Supplemental Aquinas 101 videos from Season 1

This episode was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this project are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.