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Methaphysics II

Persone

Koslicki K.

Docente titolare del corso

Descrizione

This course will examine recent developments of the doctrine of hylomorphism, in particular in its application to the case of concrete particular objects (e.g., living organisms).
Concrete particular objects (e.g., individual living organisms) figure saliently in our everyday experience as well as our scientific theorizing about the world. The literature is divided over whether these entities are or are not further analyzable into more basic constituents: so-called “relational ontologies” (e.g., Platonism) or “blob ontologies” (e.g., nominalism) hold that concrete particular objects are not further analyzable into more basic constituents, while so-called “layer cake” or “constituent ontologies” (e.g., bundle theories or substratum theories) hold that concrete particular objects are further analyzable into more basic constituents. The Aristotelian doctrine of hylomorphism can be interpreted as yielding a further type of constituent ontology, according to which concrete particular objects are analyzed as compounds of matter (hūlē) and form (morphē or eidos). I argue in my book, Form, Matter, Substance (Oxford University Press, 2018), that a hylomorphic analysis of concrete particular objects is well-equipped to compete with alternative approaches when measured against familiar criteria of success. In addition, hylomorphism is designed to meet further challenges which have not been emphasized much in recent times. A successful development of this doctrine, however, hinges on how hylomorphists conceive of (i) the matter composing a concrete particular object; (ii) its form; (iii) the “hylomorphic tie” which holds between the matter and the form composing a concrete particular object; as well as (iv) the further commitments and (v) the explanatory value associated with the application of the doctrine of hylomorphism to the specific case of concrete particular objects. In this course, we will look at different answers to these questions, as they have been proposed in the recent literature on hylomorphism.

Brief Bibliography
Brower, Jeffrey (2014): Aquinas’s Ontology of the Material World: Change, Hylomorphism, and Material Objects, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

Cagnoli Fiecconi, Elena (2018): “Enmattered Virtues”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 63–74, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.5

Evnine, Simon (2016): Making Objects and Events: A Hylomorphic Theory of Artifacts, Actions, and Organisms, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

Fine, Kit (1982): “Acts, Events and Things”, in Language and Ontology, Proceedings of the 6th International Wittgenstein Symposium, pp. 97-105

Fine, Kit (1999): “Things and Their Parts”, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 23, pp. 61-74

Goswick, Dana (2018): “The Hard Question for Hylomorphism”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 52–62, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.1

Groff, Ruth, and Greco, John (eds.) (2013): Powers and Capacities in Philosophy: The New Aristotelianism, Routledge, New York, NY

Harte, Verity (2002): Plato on Parts and Wholes: The Metaphysics of Structure, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK

Jaworski, William (2016): Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind: How Hylomorphism Solves the Mind-Body Problem, Oxford University Press, New York, NY

Johnston, Mark (2006): “Hylomorphism”, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 103, No. 12, pp. 652-698

Koons, Robert C. (2014): “Staunch vs. Faint-Hearted Hylomorphism: Toward an Aristotelian Account of Composition”, Res Philosophica, Vol. 91, No.2 (April 2014), pp. 151-177

Koons, Robert C. (2018): “Forms as Simple and Individual Grounds of Things’ Natures”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 1–11, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.4

Koslicki, Kathrin (2018): Form, Matter, Substance, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

Koslicki, Kathrin (2008): The Structure of Objects, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

Lowe, E. J. (1999): “Form Without Matter”, in Oderberg (ed.), pp. 1-21

Marmodoro, Anna (2013): “Aristotle’s Hylomorphism Without Reconditioning”, Philosophical Inquiry, Vol. 36, No. 1-2, pp. 5-22

Novotný, Daniel D. and Novák, Lukáš (eds.) (2014): Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives in Metaphysics, Routledge, New York, NY

Oderberg, David (ed.) (1999): Form and Matter: Themes in Contemporary Metaphysics, Blackwell, Oxford, UK

Oderberg, David (2007): Real Essentialism, Routledge Taylor & Francis, New York, NY

Peramatzis, Michail (2011): Priority in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, New York, NY

Peramatzis, Michail (2018): “Aristotle’s Hylomorphism: The Causal-Explanatory Model”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 12–32, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.2

Rea, Michael (2011): “Hylomorphism Reconditioned”, Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 25, No.1, pp. 341-358

Rotkale, Liva (2018): “The Form is Not a Proper Part in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Z.17, 1041b11–33”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 75–87, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.13

Sattig, Thomas (2015): The Double Lives of Objects, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

Stein, Nathanael (2018): “Definition and the Epistemology of Natural Kinds in Aristotle”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, pp. 33–51, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.8

Stump, Eleonore (1995): “Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism and Materialism Without Reductionism”, Faith and Philosophy, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 505-531

Toner, Patrick (2011a): “On Hylemorphism and Personal Identity”, European Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 19, pp. 454-473

Toner, Patrick (2011b): “Hylemorphic Animalism”, Philosophical Studies, Vol. 155, pp. 65-81

Zupko, Jack (2018): “‘Nothing in Nature Is Naturally a Statue’: William of Ockham on Artifacts”, Metaphysics Vol. 1, Issue 1 (“Hylomorphism”), edited by Margaret Cameron, Kathrin Koslicki, and Michael Raven, Ubiquity Press, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.7