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Philosophy of matter is the branch ofphilosophy concerned with issues surrounding theontology,epistemology and character ofmatter and the material world. The wordmatter is derived from theLatin wordmateria, meaning 'wood', or 'timber', in the sense 'material', as distinct from 'mind' or 'form'.[1] The image of wood came to Latin as a calque from theancient Greek philosophical usage ofhyle (ὕλη).
Inancient Greek philosophy,arche (ἀρχή) is the beginning or the first principle of the world.Thales of Miletus claimed that the first principle of all things is water. His theory was supported by the observation of moisture throughout the world and coincided with his theory that the earth floated on water.
Thales's pupil and successor,Anaximander, proposed a different theory. Anaximander noted that water could not be the arche because it could not give rise to its opposite, fire. Anaximander claimed that none of the elements (earth, fire, air, water) could be arche for the same reason. Instead, he proposed the existence of theapeiron, an indefinite substance from which all things are born and to which all things will return.
Anaximenes, Anaximander's pupil, advanced yet another theory. He returns to the elemental theory, but this time posits air, rather than water, as the arche. Anaximenes suggests that all is made from air through either rarefication or condensation (thinning or thickening). Rarefied, air becomes fire; condensed, it becomes first wind, then cloud, water, earth, and stone in order.
Pythagoras of Samos, a mathematician, mystic, and scientist, taught that number, rather than matter, constitutes the true nature of things. He seems to have influencedSocrates'ideal form.
Heraclitus held that all is flux. In such a system there is no need for or possibility of matter.Leucippus held that there exist indivisible particles,atoms, underlying existence.
Empedocles held that there arefour elements, from which things are derived,Earth,Water,Fire andAir. Some added a fifth element, theAether, from which the heavens were derived.Socrates accepted (or at least did not reject) that list, as seen fromPlato'sTimaeus, which identified the five elements with thePlatonic solids. Earth was associated with thecube, air with theoctahedron, water with theicosahedron, fire with thetetrahedron, and the heavens with thedodecahedron.
Aristotle, rejecting the atomic theory, instead analyzed the four terrestrial elements with the sense of touch:
He developed Socrates' ideal form into a theory which aimed to explain existence through the composition of matter and form. He conceived of matter as a passive possibility that something might be actualized by an active principle, a substantial form, giving it real existence. The theory of matter and form came to be known asHylomorphism.
Aristotle's ideas had little impact on the ancient world. The rise ofStoicism represented the return to earlier ideas. Theircategories were an attempt to explain all existence without reference to anythingincorporeal.
Philo held that matter is the basis of evil.
Plotinus revived the ideas ofPlato andAristotle.
ManyChristians, such asAugustine of Hippo, accepted Plotinus as the greatest of thepaganphilosophers. Parts of Plotinus'Six Enneads were translated intoArabic as theTheology of Aristotle, leading to a blossoming of Aristotle's philosophy in theIslamic world. This Islamic version of Aristotle eventually reached theUniversity of Paris and the attention ofscholastic philosophy, and the work ofThomas Aquinas.
From a philosophical viewpoint, the term "matter" still is used to distinguish the material aspects of the universe from those of the spirit.[2] The rise of modernchemistry andphysics marked a return to the atomic theories of Leucippus.Quantum physics andspecial relativity however, complicate the picture through the identification of matter andenergy,particle andwave.
The dictionary definition ofmatter at Wiktionary
