Mar 24 2008
The Process of Change (Part 2)
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5. Evolution or Succession of Forms. The material universe presents us with an harmonious evolution. Reality mounts step by step from one specific nature to another, following a certain definite order. Nature changes water into hydrogen and oxygen, but it does not change a pebble into a lion; nor “can one make a saw out of wool.” Things evolve according to certain affinities, and in a certain order, the investigation of which is the work of the particular sciences, and calls for patient observation. If there are any leaps in Nature, they are never capricious. Every material substance, at every stage and at every instant, contains already the germs of what it will be in the future. This is what is meant by the scholastic formula which states that “primary matter contains potentially, or in promise, the series of forms with which it will be invested in the course of its evolution.” Prime matter is related to each substantial form, like potentiality to actuality. Hence, to ask, as some do, were the forms are before their appearance, and after their disappearance, is to reveal a misunderstanding of the scholastic system.
To sum up. Two kinds of change suffice to explain the material world. We have firstly the development of substances already constituted; thus an oak tree is undergoing development or change in its activities, its quantity, qualities, and relations, but it retains throughout the same substance: the change undergone is called accidental. In the second place, we have the change of one substance into another or into several, such as the change of an oak tree into a collection of chemical bodies: this change is called substantial.
Thus the evolution of the cosmos is explained as a combination of fixity and movement. Beings evolve, but everything is not new: something of the past remains in the present, and will in turn enter into the constitution of the future. The scholastic theory of the process of change is a modified one, a via media between the absolute evolution of Heraclitus and the theory of the fixity of essences which so much attracted Plato.
6. Principle of Individuation. The theory of matter and form also explains another scholastic doctrine, that of the principle of individuation. The problem to be solved is this: How is it possible that there should be so many distinct individualities possessing the same substantial perfection, or “of the same kind,” as we say? Why are there millions upon millions of oak trees, and not only one, corresponding to one forma querci, one :oak tree form?” Why should there be millions of human beings instead of just one? If everything was unique in this way, the universe would still manifest a scale of perfection, but there would be not two material things of one and the same kind. One thing would differ from another specifically, as the number “three” differs from the number “four.”
The “monads” of Leibnitz presents us with a conception of the world more or less on these lines. But the thomist solution is more profound. it is summed up in this thesis. Extension-which pertains to prime matter-is the principle of individuation.
My body has the limitation of extension, and in consequence there is room for your body, and for millions of others besides ours. An oak tree has a limited extension in space, and at the point where it ceases to occupy space there is room for others. In other words, without extension, or extended matter, there would be nothing which could render possible a multitude of individuals of the same kind. For, if we consider form alone, there is no reason why there should be a multiplication of a given form, or why one form should thus limit itself, instead of retaining and expressing within itself all the realization of which it is capable. Forma irrecepta est illimitata.-“A form which is not received in anything, i.e., an isolated form, is not limited or confined.” But the case is different if the principle of determination is one which must take on an extended existence.
There is an important consequence which follows directly from this doctrine. If there exist some beings which are not corporeal, and whose principle of reality has nothing to do with extension and prime matter (pure forms; pure Intelligences, for instance), then no reduplication or multiplication is possible in that realm of being. Each individual will differ from one another as the oak-form differs from the beech-form or the hydrogen-form.
The last point explains why the problem of individuation is different from that of individuality. Each existing thing is an individuality, and therefore a Pure Intelligence is such exists, also God, is an individuality. But individuation means a special restricted kind of individuality, i.e., a reduplication or multiplicity of identical forms in one group; hence the term specific groups, species.
7. Causality. The theory of cause is a complement of the theory of actuality and potentiality, for it explains how the actualizing of a potency takes place in any give being. Causality is fourfold, because there are four ways of regarding the factors which account for the evolution of individual substances.
(a) The first and most apparent is efficient causality. It is the action by which a being A which is capable of becoming A’ actually becomes A’. This action comes from without. No being which changes can give to itself, without some foreign influence, this complement of reality by virtue of which it passes from one state into another. Quidquid movetur ab alio movetur: whatever changes is changed by something other than itself. For if a thing could change its own state (whether substantial or accidental), unaided, it would posses before acquiring; it would already be what it is not yet, which is contradictory and impossible. Water is capable of changing into oxygen and hydrogen, but without the intervention of an electrical current or something else it would never of itself take on these new determinations. A being which changes is of course a being which does not exist necessarily in this state of change. Hence the principle: whatever changes is changed by something other than itself, is an application of this more general principle: the existence of a non-necessary being demands an efficient cause (see chap. 6, art. 2).
However, this acting cause is itself subject to the process of becoming. The electrical energy could not manifest itself unless it is affected in its turn by the action of other efficient causes. The whole process resembles that which happens when a stone is thrown into still water: the waves spread out from the center, each producing the next in succession. Moreover, there is an additional complication, for every action of a being A upon another B is followed by a reaction of B upon A. Nature is an inextricable tissue of efficient causes, developments, passages from potency to actuality. newton’s Law of Gravitation, the Law of Equilibrium of Forces, the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, are all so many formulas which set forth in precise terms the influence of one being upon another. Actions and reactions establish close connections between substances which are independent in their individuality.
(b) and (c). In addition to efficient cause, scholasticism attributes a causal role to matter and form, inasmuch as, in giving themselves to each other, these two constitute and explain the being which results from their combination. A particle of oxygen has for its constituent causes an undetermined element (primary matter), and a specifying element (substantial form), just as in turn the oak-substance or marble (secondary matter), together with the cylindrical shape of human figure (accidental form), are constituent causes of a particular oak tree as a whole, or of a particular statue.
(d) Lastly, we have the final cause. The activities which flow from each individual being do not develop simply at random. Water is not indifferent to boiling at 90 C. or 100 C.: it it were so, we might expect to find all sorts of capricious jumps in nature. Since the same activities and transformations are continually recurring, we infer that there is in each being an inclination to follow a certain path, to obey certain laws. Deus imprimit toti naturae principia propriorum actuum.-God has impressed upon every nature the principles of its peculiar activities. This inclination, which is rooted in the substantial form, and tends to produce the appropriate activities, constitutes the internal finality of each being. It is always present, even when an obstacle prevents its full exercise. Natura non deficit in necessariis.-Nature does not fail in necessary things.
In spite of disorders which appear at the surface of the physical world, and in spite of moral evil, both of which result from the contingent and imperfect character of the world, the internal finality proper to each being in the universe leads up to another finality,-which is external. The courses of the stars, the recurrence of seasons, the harmony of terrestrial phenomena, the march of civilizations, are all indications of a cosmic order which is not the work of any single being-not even of man-but which proves to the mind of a Schoolman the existence of a Supreme Ruler of all, endowed with wisdom. Dante receives his inspiration from scholasticism, when he concludes the Divine Comedy by singing of the universal attraction of the world ever drawn towards its goal, which can only be God.
Tis twofold doctrine of internal and external finality furnishes us with a strong teleological interpretation of the universe.
The hierarchical order that exists between the four causes results from their nature. Finality attracts (consciously or not) and persuades a being to exercise it activities. Efficient causality tends towards the end in view, and the result of action is a new union of the matter and form. When an artist undertakes to chisel a statue, it is his purpose which directs the design, the choice of the materials, the chisel itself. The first intention of the artist is the last thing to be realized. It is not otherwise with the aim of nature: in the order of intention the final cause comes first; but in the order of execution it is the last to be realized.
8. Essence and Existence. We have not yet exhausted the analysis of reality. Each individual has been distinguished into substance and accident, and in every material substance we have found matter and form. In all these stages we have been studying essence, “what a thing is.” Essence, however, has existence, and existence presents us with a quite new aspect of reality. Existence is the supreme determination of any being (actus primus). Without existence, the several essential elements which we have been considering would be merely possible; they would resemble the legendary horse of Roland, which possessed all perfections, but did not exist.
Moreover, these manifold essential elements (matte, form, accidents) do not exist in separation. They exist, says Aquinas, by virtue of one existence alone. It is the concrete oak tree which exists, the concrete lion, the actual man, Pasteur or Edison.
The theory of essence and existence completes the analysis of reality. We shall return to it in chapter 11. We must first indicate the place of man in the world which we have been studying, and expound a body of doctrine sometimes known as the metaphysical side of scholastic psychology
