John Duns Scotus on Parts, Wholes, and Hylomorphism

212 Pages·2014·1.318 MB·English

by  Thomas M. Ward

John Duns Scotus on Parts, Wholes, and Hylomorphism
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Investigating Medieval Philosophy
Managing Editor
John Marenbon
Editorial Board
Margaret Cameron
Simo Knuuttila
Martin Lenz
Christopher J. Martin
VOLUME 7
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/imp
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John Duns Scotus on Parts,
Wholes, and Hylomorphism
By
Thomas M. Ward
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ward, Thomas M.
 John Duns Scotus on parts, wholes, and hylomorphism / by Thomas M. Ward.
  pages cm. -- (Investigating medieval philosophy, ISSN 1879-9787 ; VOLUME 7)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-27831-8 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27897-4 (e-book) 1. Duns Scotus, John,
approximately 1266-1308. 2. Hylomorphism. I. Title.
 B765.D64W37 2014
 111’.1092--dc23
              2014018273
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
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issn 1879-9787
isbn 978-90-04-27831-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-27897-4 (e-book)
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For Katie
∵
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It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows
he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding every-
where birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting—everything happy,
and progressive, and occupied.
~Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
…
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 The Purpose of Prime Matter 6
i Distinguishing Matter from Form 6
ii Motivating Matter: The Argument from Change 8
iii Why Must Matter Persist through Change? 12
iv Matter as Passive Power 18
v Obediential Potency and the Subject of Passive Power 23
2 The Ontology of Prime Matter 27
i Matter as Subjective Potency 27
ii A Shifting Opinion about Matter’s Separability from Form 30
iii Particular and Total Separability 34
3 How Matter and Form Compose a Substance—Part I 41
i Forms as Parts 43
ii Matter and Form as Essential Parts 47
iii Degrees of Unity 48
iv Existence is not Enough 51
v Making a Difference 52
4 How Matter and Form Compose a Substance—Part II 60
i Producing Substance from Matter and Form 60
ii Causal and Co-Causal Relations 62
iii Innovating Aristotle’s Principle about Relational Change 66
iv The Identification of Parthood Relations with Causal Relations 68
v The Causality of Matter and Form 70
vi Dispensing with Total Separability? 72
vii Conclusions: Composing, and Composing 73
5 Scotistic Pluralism about Substantial Form—Part I 76
i Unitarianism and Pluralism about Substantial Form 78
ii Scotus against Unitarianism 81
iii Scotus against Standard Pluralism 84
iv An Inconsistent Position about the Form of Corporeity? 90
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viii
6 Scotistic Pluralism about Substantial Form—Part II 94

i The Special Potency Question 97

ii Essential Orders 98

iii Essentially Ordered Unity 103

iv The Role of Soul in Scotus and Two Unitarians 106

7 Contingent Supposits and Contingent Substances 110

i Three Modes of per se Being 112

ii Ockham on the Distinction between Substance and Supposit 115

iii What’s Special about Supposits? 118

iv Arbitrary Part-Substances? 121

8 The Mereological Status of the Elements in a Mixture 125

i Mixed Opinions about Mixtures 127

ii The Argument from Quantitative Forms 132

iii The Generation and Corruption Argument 137

iv The Violence Argument 139

v Generation from the Elements 140

vi Mixtures and Organic Parts 142

9 Why the World is not a Substance 145

i Motivating Monism 148

ii The Argument from the Distinguishing of Forms 151

iii The World/Organism Analogy 158

iv Properties of the Whole that are not Properties of the Parts 161

10 Scotistic Hylomorphism and the Problem of Homonymy 165

i Scotistic Hylomorphism Among Other Varieties 165

ii Ackrill’s Problem 169

iii Aquinas’s Response 171

iv The Standard Pluralistic Response 173

v Scotus’s Response 177

vi Scotus, Aquinas, and the Ultimate Subject of Substantial Change 178

vii Faulty Metaphysics or Faulty Chemistry? Scotistic Hylomorphism
and the Four Elements 179

Bibliography 183

General Index 189

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