Aristotle’s Hylomorphism, Politics, and Noesis: Key Concepts

Posted on Mar 8, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Aristotle’s Hylomorphic Theory

Any substance, according to Hylomorphic Theory, is comprised of two components: Matter (Hyle) is the raw material. Form (Morphe) is the essence or idea. It’s the configurator pattern or idea of matter. For example: a table. The matter (Hyle) is the wood, and the form (Morphe) is the carpenter’s idea.

Dynamism and Actuality

Dynamism refers to the potential of substances. Matter represents the future: an astronaut is an astronaut, but potentially could be more. Actuality (Energy) is the form of something at a particular time, representing the present.

There are two rates of change:

  1. Substantial Change: A substance is no longer itself, involving generation/corruption (birth, death).
  2. Accidental Change: A substance changes without changing its form and shape, such as locative changes (movement).

The Four Causes

Aristotle identified four causes of substances:

  1. Material Cause: (Pre-Socratic philosophy, atomists of Greece…) The arche or underlying principle.
  2. Formal Cause: (Plato, Pythagoreans).
  3. Efficient Cause: The motive or agent that builds something.
  4. Final Cause (Telos): The purpose or end goal; the Good.

In the case of the human being, according to Hylomorphic theory:

  • Matter: Body
  • Form: Soul

There are different types of soul:

Soul / Purpose / Function / Structure / Nature:

  • Vegetative Soul: Conservation of the individual through nutrition and reproduction. Found in organisms like plants.
  • Sensitive Soul: Movement, sensory perception (five senses and common sense), memory, and imagination. Found in animals.
  • Rational Soul: Thought, will, intellectual reasoning, understanding agent and patient. Found in humans.

Aristotle on Politics

The human being is a political animal (Zoon politikon), needing to develop a polis. Political activity is above ethical activity because it encompasses more people. The human being is a gregarious animal and progresses through three phases:

  1. Family: The basic unit of society, linked to nature. Mother, father, and child (the first form of communication). Purpose: procreation and care of basic needs.
  2. Villages: Union of several families, providing more secure survival.
  3. Polis: Full implementation of a human being, allowing full mental and psychological development of its members. Governed by laws and regulations, enabling more complete development.

Human beings, in addition to voice (phone), possess logos. Phone serves to express the basic state of being alive, while logos allows us to have language. Without logos, there is no thought.

Forms of Government

Good Governments:

  • Monarchy: Rule by a single person.
  • Aristocracy: Government by the best.
  • Politeia (Democracy): Government by politicians and citizens.

Corrupt Governments:

  • Tyranny: Rule by a single person, obeying their own wishes.
  • Oligarchy: Rule by rich classes, seeking their own benefits.
  • Demagoguery: Degeneration of the Politeia, searching for their own benefit.

For Aristotle, justice has both moral and political value. On a moral level, it is the balance of virtues, and on a political level, it is acting adequately according to the laws of the state.

Justice can be commutative (always seeking equality for all) or distributive (regulating the distribution of rewards based on the merits of each).

Noesis and the Prime Mover

Noesis Noesios refers to thinking about thoughts. The right order is everything. The first start, Noesis Noesios, without cause, is a pure act, representing the idea of God.